Protest rallies await President Benigno Aquino III as he arrives in Negros Occidental today to administer the oath to the new members of Liberal Party, of which he is the chairman.

Task Force Mapalad national deputy coordinator, Lanie Factor, said their members in Negros Occidental will picket near the Natures Village Resort in Talisay City, where the oath-taking ceremony will be held, to press for the immediate distribution of land under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program to farmer-beneficiaries.

Factor said that they will also ask the President to intervene in the cases filed before the Supreme Court regarding 11 haciendas in the province covered by the stock distribution option.

She added that they will ask the President to replace the officials at the Department of Agrarian Reform because they were not able to heed the calls of farm workers for genuine land reform not only in Negros Occidental, but also in other areas in the Philippines.

Members of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Negros are also set to stage a protest rally against the President to air their concerns on massive demolitions of houses of informal settlers and political repressions of the leaders of progressive organizations, their Secretary General, Christian Tuayon, said.

Tuayon said they will also show the President how dismayed they are with his refusal to grant the P125 across-the-board salary increase.

He said BAYAN members will also ask the President to heed their call for the abolition of the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board, which they said has become useless.*APN

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