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The militant Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) has proclaimed strong and solid support for the actions and activities farmers under the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) are holding today and tomorrow. KMU has decided to participate in the torch parade to be held at the Quezon City elliptical road, fronting the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). There will be a symbolic ceremony where workers will proclaim unity with the peasants in the struggle for land and agrarian reform.

KMU secretary general Elmer Labog said that the militant sector of workers is one with the farmers in the struggle against the anti-poor, anti-farmer policies of the US-Estrada regime. Labog said that KMU is also staunchly against the plans of the government to allow 100% ownership of land to foreign corporations and groups.

"What the government is doing is acute and indisputable betrayal of national sovereignty and patrimony. Estrada's insistence in pushing the Cha-cha a.k.a. Concord is tantamount to treason, and mass murder – because not only is he endangering the lives and livelihood of millions of
Filipinos, but also the future of generations to come. To allow foreigners to completely own large tracts of land and bodies of water in the country 100% is to allow ourselves to be enslaved. Nothing will be left to the Filipinos, and practically everything will be owned and controlled by the foreign monopoly-capitalist groups. We might as well put price tags on our bodies and declare ourselves and our children for sale," said Labog.

"There are millions and millions of Filipino peasants at this very moment starving in the provinces because of the massive conversion of agricultural land. Millions have no homes because the military and other fascist state forces drive them away from their lands, burning their houses, enforcing hamletting. The environment is slowly being murdered, slated for absolute
destruction because the government permits giant-scale mining and exploration without the slightest considerations for the effects on the ecosystem and ecological balance. All this destruction continues and worsens because the government loyally implements to the letter the
dictates of the IMF-WB and the monopoly-capitalist businesses. These business have nothing in mind but to drain the country of all its natural resources, and suck out the greatest profits at the least expense," he said.

The labor leader also expressed outrage and denounced the Estrada government for coddling the likes of DILG secretary Alfredo Lim whom he called 'a man with a demented sense of human rights and twisted understanding of human rights.

Labog accused Lim of being a cold-blooded killer, citing the latter's participation in the bloody Mendiola Massacre in 1987, where 13 peasants where gunned down. "Lim has the gall to challenge the families of his victims to lodge charges and prove his guilt - malakas ang loob niya
because he damn well knows that his victims come from families who have neither wealth nor influence to pursue legal cases. Not only will they be up against Lim, they will also have to contend with Lim's patrons. Now, Lim has president Estrada's support, he is now part of the Malacanang mafia along with fellow gangster Gen. Panfilo Lacson-- that practically makes
him untouchable," he fumed.

Labog said that what the country needs is a genuine and thorough-going agrarian reform program balanced with nationalist industrialization free from the domination and control of big monopoly-capitalist businesses.

"These are the only steps that can save the economy. The monopoly and control of foreigners over the country's natural resources, as well as over the strategic and vital industries, must be broken. In this light, the Cha-cha scheme must be defeated and totally junked because all that stands against the effort to build an independent, self-sustaining, and people's
welfare-oriented economy is packaged in it,' he said.