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From a moral calculus, the voiding of the land-use conversion of the
Sumilao Estate was a great victory, a bright, shining light for
social justice. It showed that public and religious institutions,
when acting in consort for the common good, can prevail over an
established and well-connected corporate interest—San Miguel Foods
Inc., (SMFI).
Nothing can be more heartening than the
triumphal return of the Sumilao farmers to rural Bukidnon, after
their long march to the capital and their sweet victory that
came through a presidential edict.
The victory was a dagger thrust directly into
the feudal structure of Bukidnon, its new and old landowning
families, the corporate interests that have acquired vast tracks of
lands for agri-business ventures. And hordes of land speculators
too, that see in Mindanao the future of Philippine agri-business.
But on a macro level, was it a practical,
rational decision for a country that aspires to get past its feudal
trappings and start a zealous effort to develop its rural areas
based on their economic potential? Here lies the great debate.
I can picture what will happen to the Sumilao
tenants 10 years after they have taken formal possession
of the 144-hectare estate.
Roughly 90 percent of them would be landless in
ten years, the proceeds squandered in life’s many vices. They will
be left with the junks of owner-jeeps or passenger jeepneys, the
relics of their shattered lives, dashed hopes, and big dreams that
have gone awry.
The 10 percent that will manage to hold on to
their lands will not really succeed in creating integrated farms
with a net of roughly P100,000 per hectare per year. Which is the
minimum yearly return for every hectare of successfully-farmed land.
You can make that much in the harsh and torturous farming
environment of Pampanga, which features among others the following:
tungro, swine flu, poultry NCD, the lethal food and mouth disease
and the yearly typhoons.
Oh, another thing: they will probably have
preserved the scrap books that contain the news clips on their
victory in December 2007.
Other than the shattered lives and their scrap
books, not much would still be in possession of the Sumilao tenants
ten years after taking formal possession of their land. I know I am
from Lubao, a sacred ground for those who died and struggled for
agrarian justice. My town was the site of the first agrarian strike
in the country. Several of my next of kin joined the Sosyalistas,
with their flaming red headbands and even more fiery dispositions. I
came from several generations of landless tenants.
I am quite familiar with what with do with land
once in possession of it To heck with the decades of struggle to get
agrarian justice. Damn the long list of the dead that gave their
lives so this generation can get their land from their landlords.
What are these compared with the thrills offered by the tupadas and
the good-time girls?
Every bone in my body hates to say this but this
is true: the farmers would have been better off partnering with SMFI
and giving the corporate giant the full leeway to develop the land.
A partnership with SMFI will turn the farmers
into small and medium-scale agri-business entrepreneurs with a ready
market, or ready contract-growing or supply arrangements.
Of they can work at the integrated hog breeding
concern that the SMFI will put up there. Trained at the SMFI hog
breeding facility, the children of the Sumilao farmers can get
employment in the following areas: Australia , New Zeland, Canada.
The Middle East will be their lowest-paying destination after
four of five years of work in the breeding facility.
I don’t care about the hype peddled by the San
Miguel PR people on local government development and the huge taxes
that the facility is expected to pay to the municipal government.
The future of the Sumilao tenants is all I care about and in this
respect, they would be better off by staking their future with the
hog breeding facility and the enormous agri-business activity it
will generate.
The Sumilao tenants should forget about the Church
people that fed them and marched with them in Manila. They meant
well but their goodness of heart can be likened to a motel quickie.
It has no staying power.
What about the NGOs and the supposed
crusaders for justice that fed them and marched with them in Manila?
Unlike the Church leaders who had noble motivations, these supposed
do-gooders are just a bunch of hypocrites and publicity seekers.
Invoking the fight for justice, some of them may
just be padding their aid portfolios to con more foreign donors.
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