Unheard Grievances of Filipino Peasants
January 7, 2008Hindi naman siguro lahat ng Lormanian ay galling sa mga pamilya ng negosyante o pulitiko. Siguradong meron at meron tayong mga kapamilya, kamag-anak, kaibigan o kakilala na sa lupa umaasa upang mabuhay. Narito ang isang pagsipat sa kanilang kalagayan.
Seven out of ten Filipino farmers have no land of their own. This and other staggering statistics slapped me in the face after learning about the present situation of peasants in our country.
Enclosed in our own comfortable worlds, most of us have unconsciously blocked our eyes from the obvious realities around us. Millions of our fellow Filipinos who engage in farming are facing mountains of problems. And sadly, as days pass, it is almost sure that these mountains will topple down and bury them all alive.
Unpaid Workers
Many farmers are working diligently without even a single centavo as a payment. They work for unnumbered hours from dusk until dawn. The sad thing is, most of these unpaid workers are women and children. Only the father, who is considered to be the head of the family, is paid and as though that wasn’t bad enough, he also receives insufficient wages.
Unjust Laws
Throughout the past decades, several land reform acts and land distribution laws have been promulgated by the various administrations. However, these laws have done very little to alleviate the burdens of peasants who work for inconsiderate masters. Moreover, landlords don’t even bother to follow these laws and most peasants were not educated about these laws.
Unfair Landlords
Feudalism and monopoly are still very rampant especially in the rural areas. This is being resisted by some peasant organizations such as the Solidarity of Peasants against Exploitation here in Region I. And since the peasants are now fighting for their rights, they are also becoming some sort of ‘threat’ to the fraudulent landlords.
Unsure and Unsafe Lives
Due to the recent resistance of some peasant organizations to the mistreatment and oppression done to them by the landlords, another threat butts in, the military. Silently, several battalions of soldiers have been deployed to relatively peaceful areas for no apparent reason. This may not mean anything to people who are far from these places but to the residents of these areas, the presence of these heavily armed men brings panic and fear.
Unclear Future
The Cory regime brought excessive bliss to many farmers due to the distribution of Certificate of Land Transfer. These certificates somehow washed away the worries of land less farmers for they snow legally owned the lands that they have been tilling for decades. But the happiness was fleeting though. A year after the issuance of these certificates, another law has been passed canceling the validity of these papers. And now, several corporations of mysterious ownership are claiming the lands of the peasants.
These problems are just a few of the humungous burdens that Filipino peasants are carrying on their backs at present. Nobody knows what lies ahead in the future of our pitiful brothers. Unless the “big mole” acts, we might as well prepare ourselves for more dumbfounding statistics. Or is it us who hold the key for the freedom of our peasant brothers from the grip of extreme poverty?
