'Farm strike' looms in reply to junking of impeach raps

Militant farmers' group Kilusang Mambubukid ng Pilipinas Cebu chapter threatened to hold a "farm strike" if the House of Representatives upholds the justice committee's decision killing the impeach raps against President Arroyo.

Obviously disappointed by last week's junking of the impeachment complaint against the chief executive, KMP-Cebu broods over the possibility of launching a calibrated farm strike in selected agricultural areas of the province.

KMP-Cebu said that farm strike, as a form of protest, could take the shape of agricultural work stoppage and the halt to the delivery of farmer's produce in the local markets.

Panfilo Arpay, KMP-Cebu chairman, said that they no longer expect the impeachment complaint would succeed because majority of the legislators are allied with Arroyo.

"Given the tremendous superiority in numbers of solons allied with Malacañang and the deluge of millions of bribe money in Congress, the impeachment complaint is good as dead depriving people of the opportunity to ascertain the truth behind the legitimacy of Arroyo's presidency," Arpay said.

On Wednesday night, the House justice committee, which is dominated by Arroyo's allies killed the impeachment complaint by voting 56 to 24 due to insufficiency in substance.

With this, Arpay and the other leaders of KMP-Cebu are currently consulting their members in the various municipalities to discuss the plan to hold a strike and other modes of protest in their respective areas.

"As not to inconvenience the consuming public, the scope, intensity and timing of the farm strike will be our premium consideration. Thus, it will be calibrated. We wish to send a strong political statement to the regime that the farmers will not take sitting down any move to suppress the truth," Arpay stressed.

KMP-Cebu has some 3,000 members mostly corn, rice and vegetable growers in 15 of Cebu's southern and northern towns. - Wenna A. Berondo