Why can’t the Kamatayan bloc support the agrarian reform program of the President?

The communist movement has always cried about genuine land reform but was eerily silent on the determined effort of President Rodrigo Duterte to speed up the distribution of idle land.

A top official of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) lashed at the so-called Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives who is clamoring for land for the landless but had not made a stand on the all-out efforts to implement genuine land reform in the country.

Maj. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr., AFP deputy chief of staff for civil military operations (J7), noted that the Makabayan representatives, which he preferred to call Kamatayan bloc, are propagandizing the opposite — agitating farmers against the government.

“Why can’t the Kamatayan bloc support the agrarian reform program of the President? They have been saying that land is the solution for the landless but what they want is Bungkalan and Okupasyon style which is counter-productive as it causes friction,” Parlade told the Daily Tribune.

Parlade, who is a member of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), was referring to Operation Plan “Bungkalan” and Oplan “Okupasyon” which was part of the 2018 “Red October” designed to oust Mr. Duterte.

Under “Bungkalan” and “Okupasyon”, militant groups linked to the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) agitated farmers and poor communities to illegally occupy agricultural lands and government housing.

As a result, Parlade said that “violence between legitimate beneficiaries and the leftist members, like what happened in Busuanga in Palawan, Sagay in Negros and elsewhere, erupted.”

“Why can’t they just allow the government to finish the program, which is complemented with support mechanisms from DA (Department of Agriculture), TESDÀ (Technical Education and Skills Development Authority), DTI (Department of Trade and Industry), DoST (Department of Science and Technology), DPWH (Department of the Public Works and Highways), and DILG (Department of Interior and Local Government) among other agencies,” asked Parlade.

“The NPA cannot provide that…that’s the NTF ELCAC style — whole of government approach and not tokenism,” he added.

The President has vowed to distribute land to the tillers under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program — including vast lands controlled by political clans like the Hacienda Luisita owned by the family of former President Benigno Simeon Aquino III.

Why can’t they just allow the government to finish the program?

Mr. Duterte noted that the issue of land reform has been the main issue being used by the CPP-NPA to recruit rebels against the government.

On Friday, the President said that vast landholdings that Spanish friars passed down to Filipinos when the country ceased to be a colony of the European country should be surrendered.

Some 23 friar estates from Catholic religious orders cover an area of 160,535.8 hectares of land found in the provinces of Bulacan, Bataan, Cebu, Cavite, Isabela, Laguna, Mindoro, Rizal and Metro Manila.

When the Americans took over the Philippines from Spain in 1898, among the first problem that confronted the new colonizer was the disposition of the so-called friar lands.