HARVEST TIME: Hacienda Luisita
farm workers assist each other in reaping the fully-grown crops – products
of a hard struggle that claimed lives
PHOTOS BY REYNA TABBADA
HACIENDA LUISITA, Tarlac City (125 kms.
morth of Manila) - It’s harvest time and the men and women of Barangay
(village) Asturias in Hacienda Luisita are busy cutting rice stalks from
the paddies, hauling them to the small mechanical thresher and gathering
the golden rice grains into bags for drying and storage.
Rodolfo Tolentino, 56, is all smiles as he
tells of his own success. He cultivated three luwangs (about 2,500
sq. meters) four months ago and he harvested 17 sacks of rice. He gave two
sacks as payment for the thresher and another sack to his neighbors who
helped him in harvesting and had 14 sacks left for his family.
“Mas maganda ngayon. Wala akong amo at
napapalitaw namin ang aming pagkain at may kaunti pa kaming pera,
(Things are better now. I have no boss and we are able to produce our own
food and have a little money), Tolentino told GLNS.
Aside from the rice harvest, he said he
earns about P150 ($2.99 at an exchange rate of $1 = P50.01) per day from
the vegetables he planted along with the rice.
Indeed, his situation is much better at
the time before they launched the strike in November 2004 where they earn
a measly P9.50 ($0.19) a week as wage earners in the plantation.
Tolentino, a member of the United Luisita
Workers’ Union (ULWU), is reaping the gains from the bungkalan
(cultivation), a community effort initiated by the union to transform the
6,000 ha. sugar plantation owned by the family of former president Corazon
Cojuangco Aquino into land planted to food crops for the benefit of the
farmers.
But more than their success in the
cultivation and harvesting of crops, the farm workers in the village are,
in effect, implementing land reform solely from their own efforts
Collective farms
More than 200 has. of the 300 ha.
agricultural land in the village has been cultivated. Of the 200 has.,
about 140 has. have been planted to rice and some 60 has. planted to
vegetables, according to Lito Bais, ULWU steward and bungkalan
leader.
He said that since cultivation started
early last year, about 2,000 has. have been made productive in the 10
villages comprising the hacienda, albeit through a slow and gradual
process.
While Bais appreciates the efforts of
individual tillers, he says it is the collective farms that enabled them
to expand production in the face of so many limitations and problems.
More than 20 families are now tilling an
average of two to 2 ½ has. Bais said. A system of labor exchange has
evolved wherein work such as planting and harvesting in family plots are
shared by other families and union members in the village, he said.
“Sa pagtutulungan namin, nagagawa ang
trabaho kahit halos walang pera
(Through our pooled efforts, work is done even if there is hardly any
money), Bais said.
When people realized the benefits of
collective work, everybody wants to pitch in to work somebody else’s plot
knowing that when it is time to work on his/her farm the rest of the
community will be there to help, Bais said.
Good yield
On this day, some 40 farm workers are out
in the farm of Federico Cruz cutting rice stalks with scythes and bringing
them to the thresher where the grains are separated from the straw and
gathered in sacks.
Cruz, 49, already harvested 74 cavans from
a portion of his 2 ½ ha. plot. He netted 58 cavans, after deducting costs
for the harvest and he expects at least 130 cavans more from the rest of
his farm.
He still expects an income of some P30,000
($599.88 at an exchange rate of $1=P50.01) from the harvest after paying
for the loan he incurred for the purchase of 10 bags of fertilizer, two
liters of pesticide and about 400 liters of diesel for the deep well
irrigation pump.
“Maganda ang ani namin. Hindi namin
kikitain ang ganito noong swelduhan pa kami sa asyenda
(We have a good yield. We do not earn this much when we were wage-earners
at the hacienda), Cruz said.
Gil Palaganas, 56, expects to harvest some
250 cavans from his plot that adjoins Cruz’s. He stayed at the picket line
from day 1 until the barricades were lifted, and today is helping Cruz
harvest his crop.
Dream come true
“It is a dream come true. Old women in the
village are literally crying with happiness when they saw long stretches
of palay (unhusked rice grain) being spread on the concrete road to
dry under the sun,” Bais said.
“They say this is what they have been
waiting for all these years, to see the hacienda producing food for the
people and not sugar cane,” Bais said.
Asked about the temporary restraining
order (TRO) issued by the Supreme Court that temporarily blocked land
distribution by the Department of Agrarian Reform in the hacienda, Bais
said:
“We are following up the petition
submitted by the Solicitor General to lift the TRO. But we will not be
bothered much by the delay. Land reform in the hacienda is happening right
now from our own efforts.”
The villagers say that food and even cash
has practically ceased to be a problem during harvest time.
“In the past, everybody is in dire need of
even only rice for a meal. But now with the harvest coming in, there is
rice and vegetables to go around. Everyone is willing to lend to a
neighbor knowing that the neighbor will also harvest in due time,” Bais
said.
Transformed community
Andy, 22, a leader of the Samahan ng
Kabataang Demokratiko sa Asyenda Luisita (SAKDAL or Organization of
Democratic Youth in Hacienda Luisita] believes that bungkalan has
transformed his village in many ways.
“People are now even more united and
generous. Collective work in the field has helped in changing the attitude
of people. People are happier today because they realize that they have
the capacity to improve their lives,” Andy said.
The Sakdal chapter in the
village also joined the bungkalan and tilled about 1 ½ has.
Andy said that they did not sell the vegetables they produced and just
donated them to the community especially to those just starting to work on
the land.
Even the shroud of fear and terror that
engulfed the villages since the November 16, 2004 massacre at the picket
line, and the militarization and killings of union leaders, seems to have
been lifted.
The villagers walk around freely and go
about their work in the farms and homes looking confident and unafraid.
Bais, who himself was almost killed when
suspected soldiers fired at his home in December last year, say the
bungkalan has served to strengthen their organization.
He said meetings are easily held while
they are out in the fields and that villagers are more active in
organizational plans and activities because of the bungkalan.
Vigilance in victory
“This victory is a result of the strike.
We proved that going on strike is still the most effective way of
asserting our rights,” Bais said.
Seven strikers were killed
and more than 100 were wounded when military and police attempted to
disperse the workers at the picket line in front of the sugar mill on
November 16, 2004. The government deployed hundreds of soldiers in the
villages after the massacre
Two union leaders—Ricardo
Ramos. President of the Central Azucarera De Tarlac Labor Union, and ULWU
director Tirso Cruz were murdered in the course of the strike. Scores of
union members have sought refuge outside of the hacienda for fear of
military attack.
Bais says that they still have to contend
with militarization and the scabs and loyalists of management.
Most of the soldiers have left the village
and were deployed to guard the construction of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac
Expressway in the villages of Pasajes, Mapalacsiao, Motrico, Asturias,
Bantog and Cut-cut II that cuts across the hacienda.
“We have to remain vigilant. Although we
do not see uniformed soldiers roaming the villages, they were replaced
with armed men in civilian clothes.” Bais said.
Scabs and village officials also took
advantage of the workers’ victory, Bais said.
He said some 420 has. have been unjustly
appropriated by management loyalists in the villages of Parang, Pando,
Motrico, Pasajes and Bantog.
But in his village, Bais said that people
were able to prevent the entry of management loyalists. He said villagers
refused to work on a project offered by village officials to plant okra
knowing that it is an export crop and they will not gain anything from it
aside from meager wages. Gitnang Luzon News Service/Posted by Bulatlat
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