Luisita Farm Brigades Till Land as
They Await Distribution
As lawyers haggle over
the legality of the revocation of the stock distribution option in
Hacienda Luisita, the farm workers continue to reap benefits from tilling
the land and earn money from the on-going sugar cane harvest.
By Abner Bolos
Bulatlat
As lawyers haggle over the legality of the
revocation of the stock distribution option in Hacienda Luisita, the farm
workers continue to reap benefits from tilling the land and earn money
from the on-going sugar cane harvest.
The United Luisita Workers’ Union (ULWU),
the 5,000-strong farm workers’ union, said their members have more than
doubled the 300 hectares they were able to cultivate at the height of the
strike last year. The union has also received some P1.68 million ($32,000
at $1:P52.52) as proceeds of the harvested sugar cane.
Union leaders say the decision of the
Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) to revoke the SDO on Dec. 20
last year “further tied down the hands of management from taking back
control of the land” and encouraged union members to expand their farms.
The sugar mill in the 5,000-ha. sugar
estate owned by the family of former President Corazon Aquino resumed
operations when the 13-month long labor dispute ended last Dec. 8. But
management was not yet able to operate the sugar plantation because of
financial difficulties.
“There is no work for the farm workers
after the strike ended," ULWU president Rene Galang told Bulatlat.
"Working on the land and the sugar cane harvest will allow us to survive
and is a concrete step toward land ownership for the hacienda people.”
“Now that the strike is over our members
have more time to till. We will monitor the legal case closely and will do
what we can to prevent a reversal of the decision (to revoke the SDO) and
realize land distribution,” Galang said.
Time to till
The farm workers started cultivating idle
land in the plantation at the height of the strike last year.
Lito Bais, 41, leader of a collective farm
in barangay (village) Asturias said that farm workers now earn about
P5,000 to P10,000 ($95.20-190.40) per harvest from crops such as camote
(sweet potato), corn and mongo. He said this is aside from weekly earnings
of at least P500 ($9.50) from vegetable crops.
To expand production and plant rice (the
country’s staple food), Bais said two work groups composed of 25 union
members diverted water from the sugar mill’s ditch to irrigate a
two-hectare collective farm planted to rice. He said they expect to
harvest some 200 cavans (one cavan is equivalent to 50 kgs.) of rice next
month.
Water for irrigation has become scarce in
the current dry season. But union leaders say they will be able to buy and
install pumps to tap underground water from the proceeds of the sugar cane
harvest, as well as seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. The unions also
plan to borrow or lease tractors to expand cultivation.
Farm workers said the hacienda soil is
rich and can yield some 100 cavans of rice using only rain water and the
barest of fertilizers and pesticides. One dayos (stretch or plot
measuring about 50 sq. meters) can produce one sack of camote which
sells from P500 to P600 ($9.50-11.42) per sack.
Maximo Sebastian, 56, ULWU member from
barangay Asturias earned some P10,000 ($190.40) from 20 dayos of
camote and P5,000 ($95.20) from his peanut harvest, a far cry from the
meager wages they received before the strike, which was a mere P9.50
($0.18) a week.
The union estimates that about 700
hectares has now been made productive in the 10 villages comprising the
hacienda.
Sugar harvest
The agreement that ended the strike, aside
from providing for the workers’ “major demands,” also gave the farm
workers the right to harvest and get the proceeds from the sale of the
estimated 60,000 tons of sugar cane left unharvested because of the
strike.
Union members receive individual pay for
tabas and karga (cutting and loading of sugar cane into
trucks) while the union gets the proceeds from the sugar cane milled at
the sugar mill.
Last week, ULWU received P1.5 million
($28,560) as payment for the sugar cane harvest that started in the second
week of December. Earlier, the union also received P180,000 ($3,427) as
proceeds from the sugar cane harvest. The money goes into the union’s
coffers to be used to expand production and a portion will be shared among
union members, according to union officials.
A union member receives P220 ($4.19) for cutting and loading a ton of
sugar cane. Women who are unable to load cane into the trucks, are paid
P170 ($3.23) for every ton of cane cut ready for loading. A farm worker
can cut and load one to three tons of cane a day. Women cane cutters
usually work for only half a day.
“Ang unyon ang namamahala sa pagtatabas
ng tubo na dinadala sa central. Kumikita ang aming mga myembro at
nakakapag-ipon ng pondo ang unyon mula sa bayad sa tubo. Napakalaki ang
kaibahan ngayon kaysa noong sumasahod lang kami ng P9.50 ($0.18) kada araw
sa parehong bigat ng trabaho" (The unions manage the harvesting of
sugar cane that is delivered to the sugar mill. Our members get paid for
the work and the union is able to collect and save the money paid for the
harvest. There is a big difference now compared to the past when we were
paid only P9.50 ($0.18) for the same amount of work), Joey Romero, member
of the ULWU board of directors told Bulatlat.
The collective spirit is also evident in
the way the cane is harvested. Union members in each village are grouped
into work brigades of 10 to 15 farm workers per brigade. One group
composed of 10 workers can cut and load 13 to 17 tons of cane per day. The
pay for the total tonnage harvested by each group will then be divided
among its members, according to union officers.
The union plans to manage the plantation
until next year’s harvest season. Romero says this season’s harvest will
produce the third ratoon of cane crop (a ratoon is the root and trunk part
of a sugar cane that is left to grow again for the next season’s harvest).
The third ratoon is known here to be the most profitable since it will
produce more yield.
“Karaniwang mas makapal ang third
ratoon kaysa sa mga nauna kaya inaasahan naming mas malaki ang ani sa
susunod na tabasan. Aalagaan namin ito para mas mapakinabangan ng mga tao"
(The third ratoon is usually thicker than earlier ratoons and we expect
that the next harvest will be bigger. We will tend the cane so that the
people can reap more benefits), Romero said.
Desperate measures
Meanwhile, union officials scoffed at the
move by company lawyers to appeal the revocation of the SDO.
“The Cojuangco-Aquino
family is desperate. The (SDO) revocation has further tied down the hands
of management from taking back control of the land. There is really no way
for them to reverse the decision except to resort to legal technicalities.
The public knows that they misled and oppressed us by evading land
distribution. That is the biggest truth and no amount of legality can
reverse that,” Romero explained.
Last January 2,
lawyers of the Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) filed a motion for
reconsideration to the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) arguing
that there was “no legal basis to cancel a fulfilled contract,” referring
to the Memorandum of Agreement signed in 1989 that formalized the SDO. The
company also argued that the PARC violated the Constitution and the
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law when it revoked the SDO.
Both the Department
of Agrarian Reform and HLI concede that only the Supreme Court can issue a
final ruling on the revocation. Tarlac DAR chief Alfredo Reyes has issued
a notice of coverage on four land titles of what supposedly remains of the
original 6,453 has. comprising the hacienda.
The notice of
coverage does not include the 500 has. converted to industrial use in 1996
and the 77 hectares sold by HLI to the Base Conversion Development
Authority for the construction of a portion of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac
Expressway inside the hacienda.
In an earlier
statement, ULWU has contended that the entire original land area of the
plantation covering 6,435 has. should be the subject of land distribution.
ULWU said that the Cojuangco family used its powerful clout during the
time when one of its owners was president of the republic to unilaterally
and illegally exclude some 2,000 has. from CARP coverage.
“The case can drag on
and we are confident that our lawyers can rebut them every step of the
way. Meanwhile, the people of Hacienda Luisita must enjoy the land’s
bounty,” Romero said. Bulatlat
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