Masses alone are the makers of history. On February 25, 1986, millions of Filipinos marched along Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue (EDSA) to resist tyranny and finally end the decade‑long dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos Sr. Farmer‑led network Magsasaka at Siyentipiko para sa Pag‑unlad ng Agrikultura (MASIPAG) stands with the Filipino people, not only in commemorating the EDSA People Power Revolution but also in continuing the fight against ongoing social injustices.
Agriculture was one of the sectors Marcos Sr. heavily targeted. His Masagana 99 program sought rice self‑sufficiency through high‑yielding varieties (HYVs) and chemical‑intensive farming. Instead of prosperity, it left poisoned soils, damaged ecosystems, and farmers suffering health problems and untimely deaths.
Marcos Sr. also pursued agrarian reform through policies like Presidential Decree No. 27 (PD 27). Yet rather than truly giving land to the tillers, it restricted redistribution to rice and corn lands, burdened farmers with costly amortizations, and prioritized compensating landlords over empowering peasants. The result has led to millions of farmers remaining landless, rural poverty deepened, and corporate agribusiness thrived at the expense of genuine people‑led development.
Four decades later, the dictator’s son, current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has continued these pretentious and failed agrarian programs. His Masagana Rice Industry Development Program 200 echoes his father’s policies, pushing hybrid seeds and chemical inputs that enrich corporations while trapping farmers in cycles of debt and dependency. Far from solving food insecurity, such programs intensify landlessness, erode biodiversity, and undermine sustainable agriculture.
The failures of agrarian reform have only worsened landlessness over time. Since 1960, the number of farms has increased, but total farm area has shrunk steadily since 1991—a 38.2% reduction tied to land‑use conversions. Average farm size has collapsed by 77%, from 3.61 hectares in 1970 to just 0.83 hectare in 2022. Currently, lands are being converted into commercial spaces, solar farms, among other development aggressions.
Meanwhile, corruption continues to plague the country. Just as Marcos Sr. was infamous for plunder, Marcos Jr. has been linked and accountable to scandals such as the flood control fiasco, where over P1.14 trillion was stolen from the people.
Different times, but the people’s struggles remain. The government persists in implementing top‑down, corporate‑driven programs that prioritize profit over people. MASIPAG remembers EDSA as a testament to people’s courage, and upholds its spirit today in advancing genuine, people‑led development.