CGIAR NOT WELCOME IN THE PHILIPPINES AND THE WORLD!
International Protest to be held in the Philippines Against CGIAR, IRRI

Manila, Philippines - 18 October 2002

The biggest farmers organization in the country announced the launching of an international protest in the Philippines against the Annual General Meeting of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), together with the Resistance and Solidarity Against Agrochem TNCs (RESIST), the La Via Campesina (International Peasant Movement), the International Alliance Against Agrochemical TNCs (IAAATNCs) will lead the affair with an opening protest at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Laguna on October 29. The groups will also launch a People's Street Conference carrying the theme "Uphold People's Control on Agriculture! Assert Farmer-centered Agricultural Research and Centers!" on October 30.

"The CGIAR - the mother ship and giant piggy bank of all anti-people, anti-peasant researches and technologies is not welcome in the Philippines and in the world. The 'best of science for poor farmers' they are flaunting to be committed to is nothing but a worn-out rhetoric to cover up the super profits they accrue at the expense of poor farmers of Third World and developing countries." Rafael Mariano, KMP chairperson and IAAATNCs Co-Coordinator said.

The CGIAR is an association of public and private members supporting a system of 16 centers around the world and is sponsored bu the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Bank and the UN Development Programme. This is the first time the CGIAR-AGM will be held outside Washington upon the Philippine's invitation.

"From the Green Revolution to the Gene Revolution, we farmers have been made to believe that IRRI and other CGIAR agencies and institutions' researches and technologies were meant to increase crop yields, increase production and solve hunger. But instead, it has worsened the monopoly of imperialist globalization on food and agriculture. "

"Macapagal-Arroyo's invitation to the CGIAR-AGM is another spread-eagle surrender not only of our local agriculture and economy but also of our sovereignty. She has proven not only the mouthpiece and puppet of US imperialism in Southeast Asia but the US' and agrochemical TNC's own Genetically Modified Android serving their own profit-centered interests." Mariano concluded.

The People's Street Conference will be attended to by more than 20 foreign delegates and guests from people's organizations, farmers coalitions, non-government organizations and mass organizations worldwide. ***