We, member-participants to the 9th Assembly of AsiaDHRRA, a network of rural development NGO networks in Asia, gathered here in the building of Catholic Bishops Conference of Myanmar (CBCM), Yangon, Myanmar on 2-4 October, 2014, have learned about the cause of our partner PAKISAMA, a member of Asian Farmers Association (AFA), in pursuing the establishment of a 71 billion-peso coconut farmers trust fund, and their continuous advocacy for agrarian reform implementation.
We have been made aware of the continuous suffering of some 3.5 million coconut farmers in the country who have been victimized by an unjust taxation during the Marcos dictatorship and who mostly remain tenants and farm workers on small farms un-reached by existing agrarian reform legislation in the country.
Our network believes on the importance of social justice and people empowerment in pursuing meaningful national development. We have been witnesses to the prosperity enjoyed by our partner farmers in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, who have been participants and beneficiaries of agrarian reform programs implemented in these countries. In various countries in Asia, we saw our farmers getting more empowered through their cooperatives and their participation in the entire value chains including processing of their own products.
We believe in the proposal being put forward by 71 coconut farmers and their respective organizations currently undertaking their 1,750 km, cross-country 71-day march asking the President of the Philippines to establish a coconut farmers trust fund from the initially-recovered 71 billion coco levy fund. We vouch for the credibility of our long-time partner PAKISAMA, whom we believe is an active member of the coalition KILUS Magniniyog spearheading this long march campaign.
Thus, we humbly urge the President of the Philippines to heed their calls to establish the Coconut Farmers Trust Fund and we likewise call for the fast tracking of the implementation of existing agrarian reform law that both promise to uplift millions of farmers from poverty.
In the spirit of the global celebration this year of the International Year of Family Farming which your country initiated in the United Nations, we join the Filipino family farmers in your continuing work and march for social justice and people empowerment and wish you all the best.
In solidarity, we affix our name and signature in this document, this 4th day of October, 2014.