The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas joined the marking of the International Rural Women’s Day today, October 15. Hundreds of peasant women under Amihan National Federation of Peasant Women, together with poor peasants, farm workers, and fisherfolk from Laguna, Bulacan, Tarlac, Rizal, Cavite, and Negros, marched to the Department of Agriculture (DA) and Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Quezon City to protest the Marcos Jr. administration’s corruption, anti-farmer policies, and continuing neglect of the rural poor especially women and rural youth.
The protest launched the week-long peasant protest caravan and the Farmers’ Camp-out for Land and Against Aorruption from October 15 to 21, culminating on the 53rd anniversary of Marcos Sr.’s sham land reform law, Presidential Decree 27, which KMP and allied groups say “entrenched land monopoly and peasant exploitation rather than ending them.”
Amihan and Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) denounced the billions in unprogrammed funds and presidential pork barrel embedded in the 2026 national budget while the countryside reels from worsening poverty, hunger, and climate disasters.
“Billions of pesos go to ghost flood control projects and overpriced farm-to-market roads, while farmers remain landless and uncompensated for climate-related losses,” said KMP Secretary General Ronnie Manalo. “Peasant women and rural families are the first to suffer from this regime’s corruption and criminal neglect.”
The groups also slammed the influx of imported rice, depressed farmgate prices of palay, and the government’s failure to ensure food self-sufficiency and fair income for rural producers. “Instead of supporting small farmers, Marcos Jr. props up importers and cronies. This is corruption and betrayal of Filipino food producers,” Manalo added.
Coming all the way from Negros, sugar workers joined the protest to bring their grievances to Manila amid the worsening crisis of farmers and sugar farm workers in the region. During the annual Tiempo Muerto or dead season in sugar production, thousands of workers go jobless and hungry.
“Sobrang gutom at kahirapan ang dinaranas ng mga manggagawang-bukid sa asukal,” said peasant women leader Jenny Bantillo of the National Federation of Sugar Workers-Negros. “Habang bumabagsak ang produksyon, nananatiling bagsak din ang sahod ng mga manggagawa sa tubuhan na umaabot lamang sa P82 kada araw sa pasahod na piece-rate.”
KMP said the plight of Negros farmers and sugar workers mirrors the broader crisis in Philippine agriculture. “Under Marcos Jr.’s neoliberal and anti-peasant policies, every agricultural sector and crop line — from rice, sugar, corn and coconut are suffering chronic stagnation and decline,” KMP said. “The government’s bias for importers and big agribusiness worsens the landlessness and misery of our rural women and farmers.”
The protest today serves as the opening salvo of nationwide actions leading up to October 21, when farmers will protest against more than five decades of failed land reform and renew their call for genuine agrarian reform and food sovereignty.
“We call on all rural women, farmers, and all working people to rise against the corruption, land monopoly, and oppression that continue under Marcos Jr.,” Amihan and KMP declared. “Our struggle for land, food, and justice is also a struggle for the future of our families. ###
updates from the peasant movement of the Philippines 