Showing posts from Category: Statements

The push of China’s BRI, with the full backing of the AIIB, will continue to adversely impact the rural peoples of the Global South. We call on the members of the AIIB to investigate and pursue the impacts of the projects funded by the multilateral bank. We call on the members and networks of the PCFS to actively engage their governments on AIIB funded project and demand for transparency and accountability. Finally, we reiterate our call that decisions and plans on infrastructure should be founded on the right of rural communities to decide their needs and development priorities.

PCFS urges its members and networks to call out the Duterte regime and demand its accountability for violating the rights of its people especially the land rights defenders. Let us urge for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners in the Philippines!

PCFS calls its members and networks to extend our solidarity to the Palestinian people by supporting their campaign to return to Palestine and urging our states to contest and denounce the “Deal of the Century.” Let us raise the Palestinian flag for genuine food and national sovereignty!

PCFS slams the Aung San Suu Kyi-led Burma government for pushing this law and its impracticable amendments – a far cry from its promise of protecting the land rights of farmers. In fact, the VFV law was made stricter. Four years since NLD broke the country’s military junta, the government has opted to abide with the trends on land policies perpetuated by international and development finance institutions that undermine food sovereignty and deny the land rights of farmers and Indigenous Peoples. No plan to amend the law or even the constitution will be able to resolve landlessness in Burma if the development framework is to “draw more investment.”

Our voices here today could only resound the calls that the Indigenous Peoples of Cordillera have been demanding the government to heed for a long time. Policymakers must now begin to recognize the rights of one of the most vulnerable segments of the society, to protect and promote their access to and control over lands and resources, and to advance their right to genuine pro-people development.

MASIPAG remains at the forefront of developing a farmer-led, pro-poor, pro-people and open source crop science research, especially rice. In doing so, MASIPAG is currently a stalwart of alternative and people-centered agricultural research.