The Power of Collective Action
Cagayan Valley Farmers Reap Fruits of Struggle

This harvest season, corn and rice farmers in Cagayan Valley are getting the most from the land, thanks to their collective bargaining power.

BY DEE AYROSO
Bulatlat

Farmers sorting corn in a village in Northern Luzon BULATLAT FILE PHOTO

It’s a fruitful harvest this year for Cagayan Valley farmers.  Inspite of last year’s devastating flashfloods, some farmers earned enough income this harvest season to be able to buy hand  tractors and other farm implements as well as household appliances, and even make repairs in their houses. The added income came from having paid lower interest in their loans.  Thanks to a unity forged by the 20,000-strong peasant organization Alyansa Dagiti Mannalon ti Cagayan (Alliance of Farmers in Cagayan)  or KAGIMUNGAN with rice and corn traders.

Such unity was achieved through the collective actions of thousands of peasants and their negotiations with traders from 2003 to the present.  Organized peasants claim that traders give loans for rice and corn production at usurious rates, aside from dictating the prices of the farmers’ products.

Isabelo Adviento, Kagimungan regional secretary general considered it a victory in the peasants’ fight against usury.  Usury, the practice of giving loans at high interests is one of the causes of farmers’ indebtedness.

“Mahirap sa umpisa dahil hindi naniniwala ang ibang mga magsasaka na maipagtatagumpay.  Pero nakita nila ang lakas ng magsasaka, sa pamamagitan ng mahigpit na pagkakaisa, ito pala ang makapagtatamo ng hangarin,” (It was difficult in the beginning because some peasants didn’t believe it could be done.  Eventually, they realized the strength of the peasantry, that through unity and collective action they could achieve their objectives.) he said

Indebtedness

In Cagayan Valley, it is common for farmers to give their produce, instead of money, as payment for their debts to traders.   Peasants used to pay 25 kilos of corn or palay (unmilled rice) as interest for every P1,000 loaned ($19.36 at an exchange rate of $1: P51.65).  This has been lowered to 20 kilos. 

For cash payments, the interest rate is 2.5 percent per month, or 10 percent for every cropping.

Before the bargaining efforts by Kagimungan, interest rates reach as high as 50 to 60 kilos. 

In San Mariano town in Isabela province, Adviento said that interest rates reached up to 40 percent per cropping.  The farmer-trader negotiations in 2001 succeeded in lowering the interest rate to 13 percent.

More than 100 traders and usurers all over Cagayan Valley have signed a declaration of unity with the peasants and have been implementing the lowered loan interest rate. 

The peasants also gained their calamity demand through negotiations with traders, who agreed to lower the interest rate on loans of farmers whose crops were damaged by flashfloods last year.

“Bura-interes, para sa mga nasiraan ng 50 porsyento pataas ang pananim.  Para sa nasiraan ng mas mababa sa 50 porsyento, depende sa usapan,” (The interest is scrapped for peasants who were able to harvest a mere 50 percent or less of the crops they planted because of damages caused by the floods. For those who were able to harvest more than 50 percent of their crops, the rate of interest depended on their individual negotiation with their traders.) said Adviento.

Traders also gave in to the farmers’ demand for humane treatment of those who fail to pay their debts.  The farmers demanded a stop to the practice of confiscating the land titles, vehicles, animals and household appliances of those who failed to pay their debts on time.  The traders also agreed to give back the land titles they have confiscated from the indebted farmers.

An estimated 100,000 peasant families in the region are benefiting from the struggle, said Adviento.

Imprisonment

Before the peasants’ negotiations, indebted farmers were harassed, and even imprisoned by usurers and traders for failing to pay after just one cropping. 

One such case was Maritess Estuista who became mentally unstable in 2003 after being imprisoned in Baggao on estafa charges.  Adviento said Estuista was sent to jail with her baby because her debts had accumulated  inspite of her having faithfully paid them every cropping.  The usurer did not record her payments and kept  her indebted.

“Maraming naipapakulong dati, idinedemanda, hinihila ang lupa, bahay, alagang hayop at ari-arian ng magsasaka (Many others were imprisoned and charged before, their lands, house, animals and other properties confiscated),” said Adviento. 

Adviento said that their case study showed that a farmer’s debt of P4,000 ($77.44) increases to around P30,000 ($580.83) to P50,000 ($968) in a span of one year, through the usurer’s manipulations.

Power to the Peasant

Adviento said that through negotiations, the traders agreed to stop such practice.

“Sa usapan, pumayag silang huwag gagamitin ang korte, bilangguan, pulis, at militar sa paniningil ng utang.  Dapat idaan sa magandang usapan, sa pamamagitan ng Kagimungan (In the negotiations, the traders agreed not to use the courts, the jail, the police and military in going after the indebted farmers.  They should course it through negotiations, with Kagimungan),” said Adviento.

The peasant leader said that they presented to the traders studies that showed how peasants are being exploited through the traders’ usurious terms.  The peasants showed that even with the lowered interest rate, the traders still stand to gain, albeit with a smaller profit. 

Big traders and millers who engage in buying corn and rice profit even more when they buy the farmers’ produce at lower prices.  This summer, corn was bought from P9 ($0.17) to P9.50 ($0.18) per kilo.  

“Natakot ang mga traders na hindi magbabayad ang mga magsasaka (The traders were afraid that the peasants would not pay their debts),” Adviento said.

Two traders who refused to sign the declaration of unity were boycotted by the peasants.  “Halos walang nagbigay ng bayad sa kanila, kaya sila ngayon ang humahabol sa magsasaka,”  (Only a few paid their debts to the two traders, and so now they’re the ones appealing to the farmers) Adviento said.  The farmers are due to pay the traders next harvest season, if they will implement the agreements contained in the declaration of unity, he added.

Adviento described how peasants were encouraged and heartened by their own mass actions.  In the farmer-trader dialogue held in Baggao in December, some 700 peasants present cheered as the unities were forged.  They applauded, and shouted “Mabuhay ang magsasaka! (Long live the peasantry!)

Adviento said that their struggle will continue throughout the region, with more urgency because of the rising cost of goods.

“Walang hanggan iyan hangga’t di nakakabawi sa usura, hanggang sa kayanin ng magsasaka na tumindig sa kanilang sarili (The negotiations will continue, until the peasants recover from being victims of usury, until the peasants become self-reliant),” he added. Bulatlat

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