Food—one of the basic needs of a country for it to survive, each and everyone to be exact, and farmers are responsible for the production of most of our daily meals. They are explicitly vital in our society and economy yet according to the Philippine Statistic Office (PSA), farmers and fishermen have the greatest poverty rate in the country. This Peasant Month—October, is supposed to be a month to honor the Philippine peasantry's never-ending and ever-increasing selfless struggles against all forms of social inequality and injustice but until now; only the progressive groups and a few people defend these people’s rights. According to regional rights advocacy group PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP), the Philippines is Asia's deadliest country for environmental and land rights activists. Indigenous leaders, farmers, and state personnel in charge of environmental protection were among those killed.
A short recap of history as to how did we came to this agrarian unrest; to begin, the Spanish colonial period had the rural landscape dominated by vast private estates and dwelled around the encomienda system—a labor system that rewarded lords with the service of the cluster of conquered non-Christian people. By the time of the American colonial period, where the tenant farmers are starting to oppose the sharecropping system, the Commonwealth inaugurated an agrarian reform program—which was amended by those administrations that follow, from Manuel Roxas to Benigno Aquino III. The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, which later ceased in 2008 and was followed by the amendatory law that extends the time limit for distributing agricultural lands to farmers, was the latest legislation that led to the country’s land reform. It is the transfer of private and public agricultural lands to assist beneficiaries in surviving as small, self-sufficient farmers, regardless of the "tenurial" arrangement. Its objectives are to give landowners equal income and opportunities, to empower landowner beneficiaries to have equitable land ownership, to increase agricultural production and productivity, to employ more agricultural employees, and end land ownership conflicts. Although the land reform law should have been good news for everyone involved, barely 52% of beneficiaries were able to obtain land ownership papers. One of the reasons this law took a lot of time to be a feat was due to the members of the legislature—who were landowners and used their authority to create anomalies in the CARP, resulting in a conflict of interest and violence. Some beneficiaries were killed, while others were harassed and evicted illegally. This is just a brief, simplified backstory of the long record of conflict between landowners and tenant farmers—which is much more complex and dreadful.
Aside from being plundered with the rights to their land, farmers are also exploited for not-so-good plenty of time. Unreasonable cost of land rent, unjust distribution of harvest, inhumane low wages, and eviction of security of tenure are just some of the many reasons why Filipino farmers are compelled to go out of farms and walk through the heat in city streets just to make some noise about their unheard and forgotten rights—which was constantly used as a reason to kill or enforce their disappearances. One of the firsts notable records was the Cabuyao Massacre in May 1935. The Philippine Constabulary, led by Juan Cailles, captured Cabuyao's Sakdalistas, who had taken over the town in an uprising—which called for tax cuts, land reforms, the dismantling of huge estates or haciendas, and the breaking of ties with the United States. Those arrested were forced to line up in front of the church and were shot to death using illegal dum-dum bullets. During the massacre, 56 Sakdalista martyrs were killed; which most of the members are farmers. This was not the last clash between the government forces and farmworkers; in fact, prominent and gruesome cases followed—Maliwalu massacre (1950), Culatingan massacre (1966), Escalante massacre (1985), Mendiola massacre (1987), Hacienda Luisita massacre (2004), Kidapawan protest incident (2016), and Hacienda Nene massacre (2018).
Since President Duterte took office in July 2016, the country's issues have been worsened by the passage of the Rice Tariffication Law (2019), which liberalizes imports. There have also been 274 documented killings of peasants, farmworkers, and fishermen linked to land disputes and agrarian reform activism. These attacks have continued unabated despite the global public health crisis.
In 2020, the World Bank established the Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling Project (SPLIT) program, which will cease on December 2024, which will provide the Philippines with a loan of more than $370 million. The funds will be used to help the Philippine government efficiently distribute landowner documentation to over 700,000 beneficiaries who have unsettled claims. In September 2021, the Department of Agrarian Reform claims around 232,000 remaining hectares of agricultural land would be transferred to 2,000 farmer-beneficiaries and most of the backlog cases from the previous administrations have been handled, giving an end to decades of agrarian injustice—but, do the majority of the peasants are living a life that’s pleasant now? Did anyone already take accountability for all the clashes and recent killings? Is being landless the sole issue from the start?
Remembering the farmers' struggles and fight this Peasant month. After centuries of being unheard and belonging to the marginalized, sympathy isn’t enough anymore. What we can do for them is to shed light on their rights and what they fight for—land and living. In times of not knowing who to trust, stand with the minority—stand with the farmers.
"Hangga't walang nananagot, hangga't walang napaparusahan; umasa ka ng isang libo't isa pang mga Escalante, Luisita, Mendiola, at Kidapawan..." –Lourd de Veyra
Comments