Visayas people’s organizations seek talks with top government offices

CEBU, Philippines - A Visayas-wide delegation composed of representatives from people's organizations will be heading to Metro Manila to sound out their concerns to top government officials and will be seeking an audience with President Rodrigo Duterte himself.

Jaime Paglinawan, chairman of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan - Central Visayas, said the delegation will travel to Metro Manila to face several heads of the concerned national government agencies.

"We want to bring local issues in Visayas to the officials in Metro Manila like justice for victims of devastating Yolanda and other calamities, clear implementation of genuine agrarian reform, stop developmental aggression, end all forms of contractualization," Paglinawan said.

The seven-day activity dubbed as "Tindog Visayas! Lakbayan Laban sa Kagutuman at Militarisasyon," is set for December 6 to 12, 2016 and will be participated by an estimated 600 plus delegates, of which, 188 have registered so far from Central Visayas.

Delegates will be composed of members of people's organizations from different sectors like farmers, fisher folk, laborers, urban poor, women, youth, and drivers, among others.

Paglinawan said they continue to hold on to the promises of the present administration that it will indeed impose "change" in governance which is what prompted people's organization leaders to decide on seeking dialogues with key officials to voice out concerns.

They believe that if they only direct these concerns to local offices, these will remain unaddressed.

"We know the present administration is very much open to listen to our concerns," Paglinawan said.

Once they reach Manila, he said they will be dropping by the concerned government agencies, to which they had earlier signified their intention to have a dialogue with. In the meantime, they are also working to have an audience with Duterte to so they could forward local issues straight to him.

The agencies they will be visiting include the Department of Agrarian Reform; Department of Environment and Natural Resources; and the Department of Agriculture among others.

He said they will also register their opposition to the Marcoses' act of the "sneaky" burial of the late President Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. at Libingan ng mga Bayani, the decision of the Supreme Court allowing such, and the favorable stance of the President towards it.

Paglinawan pointed out that successive disastrous typhoons, destructive earthquakes and a prolonged El Niño has worsened hunger in the Visayas region, a problem that he says has not been given due attention by local offices.

He said the problem on land reform is still unsolved, alleging that DAR officials are accomplices to the big landlords and putting down the hope of peasants to own the land they tilled.

He added that contractualization continues to be widespread in huge factories and regions even amid the policy statement of the President to end the practice of contractualization.

Paglinawan said development aggression is also present in the entire Visayas region.  (FREEMAN)