As posted in my previous entry, I was able to take photos of the Sumilao farmers as they negotiate the busy streets of Metro Manila. I have witnessed and recorded just a portion of their struggle. They have endured the harsh weather conditions to reach Metro Manila…in a hope to reclaim their land.

You could just imagine these farmers leaving their families behind in Bukidnon? I wonder how these fathers and mothers explained to their children why they have to walk 1, 700 kilometers to press their demand to be able to take back their lands.

An innocent child may have asked their parents : “Nanay, tatay, why you have to walk that far to take back our land? Our land is just before our eyes, why you have to walk that far? So, if you’ll walk that far, is their an assurance that we can call it our own when you get back here?”

For sure, the farmers miss their family so much. Let’s just hope that the younger ones would understand why their parents and grandparents should walk that far…

It’s not easy to be away from your family for even a week. But these farmers have sacrificed , they’ve been away from their families for two months already. I mean, it’s okay to be away that long as long as you don’t have to endure pain….and you’d return home and say: “This land is already ours.”

The farmers are not asking thousand of hectares. What they are asking is just enough, for them to be able to feed their family. The San Miguel Foods Corporation said that the hog farm could provide jobs to the farmers…but… the farmers shouldn’t be the slaves in their own land.

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