(Eagle News) — Former Anakpawis party-list representative and chairman of the militant peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas Rafael Mariano said he does “not endorse armed struggle” as Agrarian Reform Secretary.
Mariano said this before members of the agrarian reform committee of the powerful Commission on Appointments, which could decide on his nomination as head of the agrarian reform department on Wednesday afternoon.
He gave the pronouncement a day after Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III said President Rodrigo Duterte’s security officials and a banana grower in Davao have linked him to a New People’s Army (NPA) attack on banana company Lapanday Foods Corp. (LFC) in April.
“Tinitiyak ko na ang DAR, na ako, hindi nag-a-advocate, nag-e-endorso, hindi ako sususporta sa illegal activities. As DAR secretary, I do no support, I do not endorse armed struggle,” he said.
He said he was “secretary, not only of one or two or three farmers’ organizations or agrarian reform beneficiaries.”
As such, he said he recognizes “the importance of DAR consulting with all stakeholders in the country.”
“Hindi tayo nag-e-endorso at sumusuporta sa mga iligal na mga gawain sa labas ng mga balangkas or [outside] the bounds of the law,” he noted.