Hacienda Serafica Farm Workers Hold Picket
While most people rared
to go back to work last Nov. 6 after a long vacation, farm workers of
Hacienda Serafica who have long been suffering from unjust working
conditions have decided to stop working and hold a picket. According to
them, they intend to stay until their demands are met.
By Johann Hein B.
Arpon
Bulatlat
Medardo Estrera of
Barangay (village) Labrador, Ormoc City spent 43 years of his life
as a sacada (seasonal sugar worker) under the Hacienda Serafica and
Sons Corp. The government repeatedly promised to give him a parcel of land
but to this day, it has remained simply that: an unfulfilled promise. In
2003, he decided to retire, frustrated and already having difficulty
hearing.
Cesario Cambuhon, on
the other hand, from Barangay Bayog, Ormoc City spent 45 years working for
Hacienda Serafica. Like Estrera, he has yet to own a parcel of land.
Estrera and Cambuhon’s
stories reflect the plight of sugar workers who have tilled the sugar
plantation of Hacienda Serafica since 1961. Despite two People Power
uprisings, they said that their sorry plight remains – landless sacadas
earning a measly P60-70 ($1.10-$1.29, at $1=P54.42).
At a little past
midnight of Nov. 6, members of the Progressive Alliance of Brgy. Labrador-Alyansa
sa Mag-uuma Alang sa Reporma sa Yuta-Samahan han Gudti nga Parag-uma ha
Sinirangan Bisayas (PABL-ALMARYU-SAGUPA-SB) set up a picket at the
64-hectare sugar plantation of Hacienda Serafica.
This move was
replicated by members of the Brgy. Bayog Farmers and Workers Association-Alyansa
sa Mag-uuma Alang sa Reporma sa Yuta-Samahan han Gudti nga Parag-uma ha
Sinirangan Bisayas (BBFWA-ALMARYU-SAGUPA-SB). At dawn of Nov. 7, they also
held a picket in their village, part of the other sugar plantation of
Hacienda Serafica, this time consisting of 185 hectares.
Both sugar
plantations, the sacadas claim, are under the Comprehensive
Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). As long-time workers of the two
plantations, they are the direct and legitimate beneficiaries.
Sugar workers say
Herminigildo Serafica, who established the hacienda, came to them in 1961
and started "borrowing" their lands so that he could plant sugar canes.
Farmer Ananias Manulat
for one recalls how the elder Serafica came asking for his family’s lands.
Manulat told Serafica that he would first harvest the corn but Serafica
assured him he would just pay him the equivalent amount of the harvest.
Four decades later, not a single payment has been made, said Manula.
Worse, after several years, the borrowed lands soon became official
properties of H. Serafica and Sons Corp., leaving the peasants landless
and toiling the fields for the Seraficas.
With their lands
converted to sugarcane plantations, they became farm workers and have
ceased planting crops such as cassava, sweet potato, corn and mongo beans
for their subsistence, further degrading their quality of life.
The hacienda farm
workers said they were subjected to very low wages, provided very little
health benefits. They also accused the management of not implementing the
collective bargaining agreement (CBA) and manipulating the Certificate of
Land Ownership Awards (CLOA) so that illegitimate beneficiaries can be
awarded land.
The CBA between
management and the Sugar Workers Association of H. Serafica and Sons
Corp.-Leyte Farm Industrial Labor and Drivers Organization (LIFELDO)
signed in 2000 stipulates that a P10 ($0.18) annual increase will be added
to their current P60 ($1.10) daily wage.
The workers, however,
got hold of a document submitted to the Department of Labor and Employment
(DoLE) by their employer stating the daily wage of workers as P143/day
($2.63), a far cry to the actual rate they are receiving. In fact, a
document they signed deemed to be just an official record of their union
membership was attached to the CBA and made it appear that they were
actually receiving P143 ($2.63) daily.
It was only six months
ago that the company gave the P10 daily wage increase.
On the other hand, the
Progressive Association of Brgy. Labrador (PABL) denounced the alleged
collusion of another peasant organization, the Brgy. Labrador United
Farmers Association (BLUFA), with the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR)
in the issuance of the CLOA. PABL said BLUFA chair, Gaudioso Potot, who is
concurrent chair of the Barangay Agrarian Reform Committee (BARC), has
been facilitating the issuance of CLOAs to non-eligible beneficiaries.
Organizing themselves
Their unrewarding toil
prompted the sacadas to organize themselves and take concrete steps
to claim the land. According to Maria Gablina who has been working at the
hacienda since 1971, "we have to take over this (land) because this is
ours and if we will not claim this, all lands will eventually be awarded
to illegitimate beneficiaries and we will end up starving.”
They demanded the
cancellation of CLOAs awarded to non-tenants/workers of the hacienda;
implementation of their CBA, in particular, and genuine agrarian reform in
general; and an end to militarization in the countryside and in the urban
areas. They also opposed the collusion between the BLUFA and the DAR;
At present, they have
been receiving reports that military will try to dismantle their picket
lines. DAR is reportedly set to visit to the picket lines to conduct a
dialogue.
The workers believe
their struggle will not be easy and that they are in for a long wait.
"(The) picket will
stay until our decades-old quest for land we can call our own will be
realized", said Conrado Gomez, PABL chairperson. Preempting a long
struggle, Bernardo Toreta, chairperson of BBFWA called on other sectors to
be in solidarity with their struggle. "Our organizations are inviting
other sectors who share our aspirations to stand in solidarity with us,
integrate in our picket lines and we would welcome any support that will
be given to us," added Toreta. Bulatlat
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