President Rodrigo Duterte offered to provide luxury and fast food dinners to rallyists in a meeting with some 200 farmers, who have been camping out in Mendiola since May 1.
ABS-CBN News quoted Duterte instructing Sec. Christopher “Bong” Go, special assistant to the president, to reserve dinner slots in Manila Hotel for the farmers, who complain the alleged land grabbing by the owners of Lapanday Foods Corporation.
The report said Duterte later instructed his aides to order chicken meals from Jollibee.
The president also assured the farmers that they will receive plane tickets to easily return to Davao.
During the meeting, Duterte listened to the concerns raised by the farmers who seeks the government’s support in the issue of land grabbing and order Lapanday to return the land to Madaum Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Association Incorporated, as well as permit the installation of farm workers and agrarian reform beneficiaries on their lands.
The former Davao mayor said the government will support their advocacies, as long as their plight follows the law.
Duterte said he has directed Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano to assist the farmers in their bid to claim their lands, which were awarded through the government’s land reform program in 1996.
Credit: ABS-CBN News
