Farmers cry neglect under Duterte
Published on: Thursday, July 29, 2021
By: Inquirer
An effigy that artists’ collective Saka calls “Digna” representing a woman peasant fighting for a better life and protection of rights, during a protest against what farmers describe as ‘neglect’ the Duterte administration. (Saka)
MANILA: Among the many ironies that define life in the Philippines is the country being mainly agricultural in character but its farmers being the poorest sector in society.In 2016, when Rodrigo Duterte was still campaigning to become president, millions of farmers looked up to him for hope after he promised to finish land reform and improve farmers’ lives.
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Five years later, there’s barely any improvement in the lives of the men and women who feed the nation. Agriculture became an afterthought as Duterte’s regime focused on drugs then insurgency. It didn’t help that the government’s attention was drawn to a much bigger concern—the Covid-19 pandemic.
The president who called himself “socialist at heart” spit out numbers in his last State of the Nation Address (Sona) to claim he has been true to his promise to finish land reform and improve farmers’ lives.
Tens of thousands of hectares of land had been distributed, according to Duterte in his final Sona. Check his previous statements on land reform and there emerges the motivation—he simply wanted to deprive communist guerrillas of a battlecry centred on land injustice.
Outside where Duterte performed his last Sona, farmers gathered to present “Digna,” an effigy depicting a woman rural worker relentlessly fighting for land reform and farmers’ rights.
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The farmers assembled at University Avenue at University of the Philippines in Diliman after marching on the Department of Agriculture’s main office in Quezon City.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) Labor Force Survey said 9.48 million of 44.2 million Filipinos with jobs are in agriculture and forestry.
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The same set of data showed the number of Filipinos employed in agriculture has been fluctuating in recent months—January (10.06 million), February (10.3 million), March (11.1 million), and April (10.5 million).
One of the latest assaults on farmers’ productivity and welfare, the Rice Tariffication Act, has opened up the gates for imported rice in a bid to bring down costs for consumers. At least P160 billion was lost in the farming industry and P20,000 to P30,000 in losses every month per farmer
Cathy Estavillo, of the women’s peasant group Amihan, said if there was any legacy that Duterte would leave to farmers, it would be neglect.
“As prices of basic needs rise, the cost of oil and farm equipment also spiked,” she said in a statement.
For former Anakpawis Rep. Ariel Casilao, the past five years of Duterte paved the way for heightened crisis that brought poverty and hunger to Filipino farmers and families.
According to 2020 PSA data, farmers had been paid an average wage of P311.10. It’s P399.08 in the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon. In Central Visayas, farmers get an average of P276.43.
The PSA said in a 2018 report that farmers posted a 31.6 percent poverty rate, the highest compared among other sectors like fishermen (26.2 percent), rural area residents (24.5 percent) and children of families below the poverty threshold (23.9 percent).
In 2017, Duterte said, “I am for land reform. That was one of the things I mentioned during the campaign and I will not renege on it.”
In June 1988, former President Corazon Aquino signed the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law, but 33 years after its enactment, a peasant group said nine out of 10 farmers remain landless.
Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura, in a statement issued on Sona day, said it anticipated lies to come out of Duterte’s last speech in Congress.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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