Philippines: Access to land is denied to 165 farmer beneficiaries, Sumilao, Bukidnon, Northern Mindanao.

165 farmers from Sumilao, Bukidnon have been struggling for their right to food for the past 10 years. Although the farmers were identified as beneficiaries for 144 hectares of land in 1995, the land was later converted from agricultural to agro-industrial use, thus exempted from the national agrarian reform program. On October 10, 50 Sumilao farmers started a march from Sumilao to Manila, a distance of 1500 km, to bring their case to the Department of Agrarian Reform and the Office of the President in time for the International Human Rights Day (December 10).   

Please write a polite letter to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as well as to Secretary Nasser C. Pangandaman, Department of Agrarian Reform, requesting them to immediately distribute and install the 165 farmer beneficiaries and their families to the said landholding.