Peasant Solon Lectures House
149 legislators get crash course on Peasant 101

The session hall of the House of Representatives took a different turn last Aug. 16. Instead of the usual rambunctious speech dished out by most regular members of the House, some 149 congressmen sat attentively to hear the first speech delivered by a colleague representing the peasantry.

By Gerry Albert Corpuz 
Bulatlat

At exactly 7:42 p.m., Mariano addressed the House: “Mr. Speaker, distinguished colleagues, this humble Representation rises on a matter of personal and collective privilege.” In the session hall were his party-list colleagues, Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran, Gabriela’s Liza Maza and Bayan Muna Reps. Satur Ocampo, Joel Virador and Teddy Casiño.

In her June 30 pre-inaugural and last month’s State of the Nation Address (Sona), Mariano followed, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, aside from imposing additional tax measures, promised to create in 10 million jobs in six years and economic growth. “The first thing that came to my mind,” the congressman from Nueva Ecija province said,  “was - Does Mrs. Arroyo have magic?”

Mariano’s opening statement gave congressmen an idea of what the neophyte legislator’s speech was all about - it was going to be an all-out, hard-hitting political piece directed against the president’s shotgun proposals for legislation.

Arrogant Mikey

In the audience, presidential son and Pampanga representative Mikey Macapagal-Arroyo looked tense and perturbed. While appearing to listen attentively to Mariano at the early part of the speech, Rep. Macapagal-Arroyo appeared like having a bad hair day that evening and went out of the session hall several times in the middle of the peasant representative’s speech.

“Guilty kasi. Mukhang tinamaan ng speech ni Kaps (Mariano’s political nickname )” (He’s guilty. He was hurt by Kap’s speech), recalls Amy Avila, KMP’s alliance officer who was in the gallery.

“He is so arrogant. Why he is acting that way? Kaps is just telling the truth,” Cecilia Palma-Ripalda of the fisherfolk group Pamalakaya echoed.

Mariano dismissed Mrs. Arroyo’s ambition to create 10 million jobs in the next six years as out of this world, rhetoric and the grandmother of all slogans. Citing sources, he said the country’s employment rate has been sinking from 88.2 percent rate of employment in April 1999 to 86.3 percent in April 2004.

Today, he added, 4.9 million Filipinos are jobless with unemployment rate going up to 13.7 percent as of April, compared to 12.2 percent in the same month last year. In the agriculture and

fisheries sectors, labor statistics provided by the National Statistics Office (NSO) showed that 481,000 farmers and small fisherfolk were displaced from their main source of livelihood.

“Given these figures, Mr. Speaker, my dear colleagues, I ask myself again: Ano kaya ang gagawin ng Pangulo? Kahit ang mga taga-NSO nahihirapan itago ang katotohanan” (What will the President do. Even the NSO is having a hard time hiding the truth), Mariano asked as Arroyo made a quick pass at the aisle near the podium where the peasant solon was delivering his speech.

Alarming

The conversion of agricultural lands to non-agricultural uses has been accelerating at an alarming rate. Mariano said farmlands devoted to rice production shrunk by 19 percent from 3.4 million hectares in 1991 to 2.8 million hectares in 2001.

Likewise, Mariano scored the Macapagal-Arroyo administration’s proposal to allot 1 million to 2 million of agricultural lands to agribusiness expansion in the country. The proposal was one of those identified fighting targets during 97th Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac) meeting last Aug. 10.

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) accomplishment report from 1998-2003 reveals that from the targeted 4.29 million hectares of agricultural lands, the DAR distributed only 3.412 million hectares, with backlog of 876,000 hectares target for distribution.

“Granting that these figures of DAR were accurate, the $ 64 dollar question is where will the President get the one million to two million hectares she plans to bargain with agribusiness?,” asked Mariano.

A study made by the Anakpawis party predicts that the administration’s plan to appropriate two million hectares for agribusiness expansion will automatically evict one million peasants from their farmlands given the average size of one-half hectare distributed by DAR per farmer beneficiary of its land reform program.

The party list solon also lambasted in his maiden privilege speech business tycoon Eduardo ‘ Danding” Cojuangco and cited his case as classic example on the perils and evils of agribusiness expansion in the country.

Mariano said the Isabela-based peasant association, Danggayan Dagiti Mannalon ti Isabela (Dagami) is opposed to the grandiose project of Cojuangco’s business empire San Miguel Corporation (SMC) plan to convert 150,000 hectares of farmlands covering the province’s 13 towns as the biggest cassava plantation in the country.

Danding’s SMC is planning to up another cassava plantation covering another 150,000 hectares of Cagayan province, both will displace tens of thousands of small farmers, according to Mariano said.

Not only collateral damage

The peasant congressman also assailed Malacanang’s proposal for Congress to allow the use of “ Farmlands as Bank Collateral,” a legislative measure identified by economic planning secretary Romulo Neri as necessary legislative measure.

Mariano said a bill on farmlands as bank collateral was introduced during the 12th Congress by other political groups which he said were either in cahoots with major players of World Trade Organization (WTO) or generally corrupted by the government’s anti-peasant policies and development paradigm on agrarian reform and rural development, which Mariano stressed was closely attuned to imperialist globalization and market-driven land reform program.

Citing Landbank’s data, Mariano said only 90,311 farmer beneficiaries were able to pay land amortization or about 2 percent of the total 4.3 million beneficiaries of the government’s land reform program.

“The Farmland as Bank Collateral bill is the twin evil brother of Arroyo’s plot to allocate two  millions of hectares of land to agribusiness expansion. The two will facilitate the rapid reconcentration of lands to all-time landed monopolies,” he said.

Also citing reports from regional chapters of KMP, Mariano said 43,598 hectares of prime agricultural lands in Southern Tagalog covering the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon were converted for export-oriented and import-dependent industrial and commercial undertakings in the South.

In addition, he said, inside the former US airbase- Clark Special Economic Zone in Pampanga, 44,000 hectares of farmlands were turned into industrial and commercial zones to the detriment of not less than 10,000 tilling families inside the base.

Below par performance

Mariano also disputed a claim by the Department of Agriculture (DA) that the agriculture and fisheries sector posted a gross income of P 664.7 billion at current prices from January to December 2003. Despite the frequent visit of typhoons, DA said the sector recorded a 3.77 percent growth rate last year or an increase of 6.02 percent compared to 2002.

The fishery sector grew by 7.51 percent in 2003, with aquaculture providing the biggest increase with production growing by 8.9 percent. Municipal production went up by 6.66 percent and commercial fishery posted an increase of 6.38 percent.

Mariano dismissed the claimed outputs in agriculture and fisheries as as par below performance and “statistically improbable,” adding that the growth rates did not reflect in the economic status and standard of living of millions of people in the countryside.

Interpellation from Teddy

After Mariano’s passionate and politically-engaging speech, Bayan Muna party list Rep. Casiño rose on the floor to ask his colleague on the proposed Farmland as Collateral Bill, which is expected to be re-filed by proponents in the 13th Congress.

Mariano got good support from his neophyte colleague in the House. The 35-year old Casiño pulled out the best in the peasant solon drawing from him more insights on the anti-peasant farmland as collateral bill.

Before serving Congress, Mariano was also chair of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan – New Patriotic Alliance). The farmer only reached first year college and had to drop out from an agricultural school in Central Luzon because his parents could not afford it. By this time, he got involved in the Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Nueva Ecija (Alliance of Farmers in Nueva Ecija) during martial law and later became secretary general of the region-wide Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon (Peasant Alliance in Central Luzon).

Mariano’s KMP advocates genuine agrarian reform and many of its leaders and members in the rural provinces found themselves victims of human rights violations. He joined Anakpawis last year as national president. Bulatlat

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