Dela Rosa: Landless farmers an issue of insurgency, but not the root cause of insurgency problem

SENATOR Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa on Wednesday expressed support for the call of Senator Imee Marcos for the government to accelerate the distribution of farmlands to the landless Filipino farmers through a fast-tracked implementation of a genuine agrarian reform program.

But Dela Rosa cautioned his fellow senators who also supported the call that while land or agrarian reform and landless farmers is an issue of the insurgents, it is not the root cause of the insurgency problem.

"I would just like to give caution to everyone in this august body that 'yun pong pagbibigay ng lupa or 'yung problema sa kawalan ng lupa ay isang issue 'yan sa insurhensya. But it is not really the root cause of insurgency," he said in a manifestation.

The former top cop said the leftist movement insurgents are only using the issue of land, lack of education, and poverty to agitate the people.

"Ine-exploit nila ito para sa kanilang ulterior motive talaga, which is to seize power of the government, to topple this government," Dela Rosa said.

The Mindanaoan Senator said that while a successful genuine agrarian reform program will weaken the insurgency movement, the leftists will always try to find other issues to continue their losing cause of toppling the government.

"Kaya nga totoo po 'yun, mababawasan sila ng issue na ma-exploit, pero I just would like to caution our colleagues that itong kaliwa ay maghahanap at maghahanap ito ng ibang issue na gagamitin talaga because I don't believe that the root cause of insurgency is poverty, government abuse, or lack of education. But the real root cause of insurgency is the desire of the communists to seize power to overthrow the existing government," Dela Rosa said.

"'Yun lang po ang aking gustong iparating na kahit mawalan tayo ng issue na pwedeng magamit ng mga makakaliwa, hangga't hindi nila makuha 'yung kanilang pinaka objective na patumbahin ang gobyerno na ito at palitan ang gobyerno na sang-ayon sa kanilang kagustuhan na komunismo ay talagang itong ating mga kalaban sa gobyerno ay hindi ito hihinto," he added.