Comprehensive Agrarian Reform, What Now

The State and Land Reform

Land Reform in the Philippines was originally passed to free tenants from feudal bondage. Feudalism is characterized by landlord and peasant/tenant relationship. Peasants pay tribute of varying forms, basically farm produce, to landlords.

The Philippines is semi-feudal. There are areas where the feudal mode still exists while there are areas where capital farming has become the mode. The old feudal system has gradually given way to the new system.

Land reform in tenancy areas is progressive. It is a leap from feudalism to capitalism. Tenants became landowners. This is primarily a conflict of feudalism and capitalism – between the old and the new.

Capitalist farming in the other hand is characterized by landowner and farm workers’ relationship. Farm workers provide labor and capitalist provides payment and benefits usually in form of cash.

Negros Island today, like most part of the country, is mainly Capitalist farming. Feudalism, Peasants and Landlords are practically non-existent. They have become imaginary characters that exist only in the minds of people stuck to their model of politics patterned after the Russian and the Chinese revolutions of the early 20^th century.

Land reform in capitalism means that one big landowner is to become many landowners. In this instance, the move is more of taking the long way if not delaying progress. Social evolution already naturally attained is re-winded. Natural evolution is tinkered counter clockwise. The growth of the working class is stifled or stunted.

[It should also be noted that pure Working class interest is multiplication of itself and for best benefits.]

But by nature, the trajectory of the new social-economic order fueled by land reform points to an emerging form similar to that before reform. For many reasons, the new farm units are slowly reverting into bigger units as they are leased or finally sold by poor farmer-beneficiaries. Economically, the smaller the farm unit is, the more inviable and impractical it becomes. Natural social evolution is trying to re-assert herself.

[One nearest vehicle for re-formation of bigger farm units in that situation apparently, would be corporate farming.]

Impracticality of Small Farm Units, Social economics

In Capital farming, for example, it is possible to grant benefits to workers in big farm units, better than what the law says, when the same would be virtually killing the small planters, which may be bad politics and requires self sacrifice for the politician who will be doing the killing. Legislators had in fact delegated this problem to Regional Wage boards.

When big planter says wage hike is killing him, he could be lying. For the small planters, he speaks the truth.

Small landowners for many reasons generally perform poorly compared to big planters. Setting that aside, if we assume a constant of (Php) P35, 000.00 net income per hectare a year, and a landowner has 5 hectares maximum allowed him by Land reform, he will earn P175, 000.00 a year that will put him bellow poverty line that was placed at P200, 000.00 ($ 4,450.00) per family per year (which is below international standard) . This is not the case of a planter who operates 1,000 hectares who will earn P35 Mn, and who can be regulated to shed say P10 Mn to the workers, which is far from killing him.

That one big planter now is renting to many small landowners is one complication that is not favorable to the workers. Planter losses a good part of his profit to lease. Some planters I know pay as much as P10, 000.00 per hectare a year in lease to land owners. Big planters who are engaged in Ariendo systems are indeed “backwards” when many have already turned to other businesses that earn faster and better.

One small landowner eliminated means more income for bigger landowner and a probable income for the workers. Sellout by small landowner, as he is naturally squeezed in the system, is eminent but hindered. Land retention limit restricts formation of bigger farm units. Furthermore, land retention limit also discourages people who are in better position to develop agriculture. Five hectares is considered a waste of time to practical, moneyed people who would otherwise think of investing in agriculture.

To put it in another way, perhaps it will strike small farmer that maybe he will do better as a fishing boat owner or a trader or what. Buying and selling land should be freed of restrictions. For small farmer to become farm-worker (he came back poorer than before) or become a successful small businessman or whatever is departure from the old Feudal system. Progress is towards the new system that is Capitalism. This is natural social evolution ticking clockwise.

Land Reform is counter revolutionary in the context of social evolution

Land reform may be counter progressive The idea is Liberal democratic in origin. In the country, it is more of politics than economics. Politically, it is a means to gain the support of the many and empower oneself or selves in the process. Armed revolution by Mao Zedong in China employed it - riding the mass that is basically peasantry to capture political power. Mao Zedong explained this as taking one step backward to make many steps forward.

Copied by the left since the Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan (HMB) or Peoples Liberation Army of the 40s, but failing to capture political power after more than 6 decades of struggle, land reform now appears to be one big, giant of a step backward for all Filipinos. I think “land reform” actually contributed to the stunted development of agriculture in this part of the world. Nor did It help the left to capture seats in congress, not until when the Partylist system was introduced.

Sacrificing the landlords to outdo the left is no big deal in Philippine politics. The powers of pure Landlord class have diminished with Feudalism. The Philippines is a developing capitalism. The super structure is now primarily commerce and trade. Land reform today as we have known it is just everybody’s politics.

The current issue in congress is whether or not the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program or CARP should be extended, or should it be totally scrapped. Added to the voices calling for its continuance there are also voices clamoring for genuine land reform. Question there is: What constitutes “genuine” land reform?

Related posts:

1. Doing away with Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program is counter progressive

2. The Sugarcane Farmers and the farmworkers of Negros

3. Sa Akon Lang Opinyon

An Act of God, But…

Its nice that typhoon Frank has left. Having nothing in mind, I took a pillow and laid-back before my TV last night. I decided to pass time watching (not my program) until late evening news but I dozed off. It was around midnight when I woke up. I found everything strange. I was seeing Ted Failon and Korina Sanchez in my screen in quite unusual unfamiliar settings. Looking at the wall clock, I realized I missed news.

So, ABS-CBN has a new TV program? It’s called HARAPAN, translated: Face to face, Point blank, Frankly, No holds barred, by Failon and Sanchez. Ted Failon – wala kang masabi dyan - nothing to say regarding him. That’s Filipino way short of saying that a person is good. I don’t like Korina in TV. I am not amused by superstitions and Guinness-like characters, and sometimes Pinoy racisms, which are what her show RATED K seems to be promoting. I like her better in her radio talk-show , though, where she is also paired with Ted Failon.

The talks in Harapan were about a disaster at sea. So, we had another sea disaster involving Sulpicio Lines during the storm that hit the country Saturday and Sunday - June 22, 2008. Another one! And Sulpicio Lines again! This time it’s MV Princess of the Stars that sank somewhere off Romblon island. This reminds us again of some major disasters:

The MV Doña Paz, (Sulpicio Lines): It drowned and roasted or stewed 3,000 4,000 souls at sea when it collided with a petrol tanker named MT Vector off the waters of Batangas. That was worse than the great Titanic disaster by all terms! I remember taking that big ferry three times before, between Manila and Tacloban.

The MV ( was it Marilyn ) of Sulpicio Lines (?) that lost hundreds of passengers, or was it thousand, when it sailed through a storm and which capsized after battered by storm somewhere off Masbate on its way to Leyte and Samar.

Back to Harapan with Ted and Korina, there was this guest, a young woman who said 5 of her 10 siblings and their parents were on board the ill-fated ship. There was this lady presumably a lawyer whom I did not get to catch her position in the matter. And, there was this male lawyer that, unmistakably, represented Sulpicio Lines who assured that P 200,000.00 (U.S. $4,550.00) will be paid by insurance for each casualty. He was emphasizing that the ship was cleared by Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) and by Philippine Coastguard before it sailed. And I counted twice he said that everything was pure “act of God”.

Act of God! Now, that’s pointing the fore-finger at the great old man! “Nah, not me! I gave you steel instead of your old creaking vessels! And I gave you advance storm warning system, you moron idiot!” He’ll probably say to that!

I Don’t Like To Fly

I don’t take plane ride, unless I have no choice. If I were on a plane and it crashes, then I’m a dead man. I see myself as a good swimmer. I always told myself that if I were in a ship that sinks, I may make it to shore. They are what run in my head.

But above all, I guess, I love traveling by sea. Besides being economical, I always find them exciting and romantic – seeing exotic islands in the way and meeting nice people on board. Out at sea at night and away from dirty city air, the heavens are clear and beautiful. Each star is visible it seems, and their colors are more defined. They remind me of how the stars and the heavens used to be so fascinating. But then that was long time ago in a small provincial town where I grew up, and something never seen by people in big cities today.

Of sea disasters and acts of God

Was not MV Cebu City, which sank off Manila Bay after colliding with a Singaporean registered vessel, also owned by Sulpicio Lines? I had been on that ship eight times before, to be exact, between Manila and Palawan.

I won’t forget my last ride of that ship! It was a fine day when we sailed from Puerto Princesa. I was thinking of a most enjoyable voyage ahead as the sea was calm as could be.

I don’t usually stay put when I’m in a ship. I could be at the aft watching the awesome power of the propellers. I could be at any side as the ship sails by an island or an islet. I could be any place I can get in a ship where I think is interesting.

I was at the bow getting the feel of the ship’s slicing through waters during this particular ride. I thought I was wrong but I had a feeling our speed was quite unusual.

The ship is awesome fast, I told a stranger nearest me. He agreed. He gave his estimate at 20 knots or more instead of the leisure cruise of about 15 knots. I was thinking maybe he was a fisherman. Or, who knows, he could be one of the off duty crew of the ship. He seemed to know much about seas and ships. A storm is expected, he added at the end of our conversation.

So, a storm was expected! Then it suddenly made sense to me why the sea was unusually calm and why all the speed! And we are there beating the storm to port! But surely ship captain must know his business.

We were at the mouth of Manila bay when storm was felt. From Corrigedor to port is about an hour. It was hell of a storm as we berthed at North Harbor. The storm was one of the strongest that hit Metro Manila because it came from the open South China Sea instead of the ordinary Pacific storm that is usually damped down by the Sierra Madre before battering the big city.

I reached Payatas Home all drenched, with roofs flying away and trees being uprooted all around. That was in 1994. And what a very, very exiting voyage!!!

Thursday, June 26, 2008

No tree broken and no roof blown-off in Payatas, but typhoon Frank’s aftermath shows far more deaths and damage than one has imagined. It now appears to be one of the most devastating - more sea tragedies during the storm, than reported in the National head lines. Storm from the Pacific usually hit Samar and Eastern Luzon, and usually goes Northwest direction. Frank struck below the belt hitting the Visayas group of islands and made a sharp upper cut.

Clarification: the MV Cebu City was owned by William Lines. Sorry

Something in the lighter side

Religious think that greediness is work of the devil. Revolutionaries think it is social class characteristic.

The Big Boar and the Bourgeois

Thunder that echoed in the hills roused everyone that cold morning. Dead, heavy tree branch crashing down in the forest can create a sound like that. But this one must have come from a shotgun. The night before, our host, a settler living beside the forest, assured that if we lend him a shotgun before day break, we would have plenty of meat by daylight.

We all ran to a ridge that overlooked the place where the sound could have come from. To investigate farther would have meant going downhill and then threading back uphill, probably all for nothing. Instead, somebody let out a big “HOOOH!” It is a call by people in the hills that can mean anything, like: “Hi there”, “Good morning”, “Come over” “Damn you”, depending on manner and situation. In our case it simply meant something like “Did you get it?” Farmer replied with a hoot that made us all run downhill with excitements. Hurrah, he got it!

The prey, a male, was the biggest wild boar I’ve ever seen. Maybe I had eaten bigger ones but that one was in one piece. He got 6 of 9 buck shots in his side. He was all muscles and ugly mean looking. Hunters call him “Solohan” as he usually goes solo. He is also known as “Tanguhan” for his razor-sharp tusks that are constantly honed as he eats. When he forages at night, hunters call him “Bokauan” for owls that accompany his presence, hard to get so that any hunter will tell you the owls are to blame for that! Anyway, it took three guys and the farmer to hog-carry him uphill.

I decided to linger around with five others guys… So, big boar came to feed on nuts of what looked like a wild Pili tree… So, maybe next time I see a tree so trampled underneath it must be a sure spot for a kill…

Day has broken… Indirect sunlight inside the forest is cool… Next season maybe settler will slash and burn the place… Harmonious flora, beautifully architectured, will soon be gone. All that for a few sacks of rice… haaah…

Just then, a strange rumbling cut my mind. It felt like earthquake but it was not. It felt like the hill was rolling down on us but it did not. And before anybody had moved or said anything, there they were! A herd of wild hogs- boars, sows, pigs and piglets, came here there and everywhere! They moved in frenzy manners. They looked deprived. They turned leaves, stones, sticks, whatever, upside down and aside for what big boar probably had missed. They did not even notice us right there! Have not they heard our noise?

I moved my eyes to the nearest guy without moving my head. He was also looking at me. A wink probably would have made him shoot one of the pigs. But I was stunned to even think about it. Then I saw this small pig trying to nudge with his snout the toes of the guy as he was barefoot. Small pig must have sensed something strange. It froze with hairs raised, then it jumped as it shrieked and they all scampered away shrieking. What a wasted opportunity, everyone agreed! Anyway, we had feasted on big boar that day.

For many nights I had thought of the big boar. He must have been very selfish. He must have been highly individualistic. He must have been very mean to put distance between him and the herd as he goes through course of daily feeding… Maybe all others were his concubines, his offsprings and his slaves.

For quite a time I had accepted as fact and passed on to others that selfishness and individualism are bourgeois class characteristics. But since big boar is not human, greediness must be animal character!

But never mind the myth, if one does not like the way another scratches his nose, just say it is bourgeois manner and he wont be scratching his nose like that again. Everything bad to the devil, yeah.

As to the small pig, until this day, I can’t keep from chuckling to myself whenever he enters my mind even when that was many, many years ago.

What’s with Mr Garcia’s Shook-up of MERALCO?

Meralco is making money more than it should be. It charges its customers the highest rate in Asia or anywhere else in the world. Those are among the heavy volleys let out by Mr. Winston Garcia of the GSIS, or Government Service Insurance System, directed at the Lopezes of Meralco.

Roughly, Philippine government through the GSIS owns a third of the Meralco while the Lopez group also owns about the same proportion. Mr. Winston Garcia who is currently GSIS administrator, seats as member of Meralco’s Board, representing government.

To observers like me, Mr. Garcia appears sore at the Lopez group. One of his open criticisms, if we remember, is that the Lopez group dominates Meralco’s Board and hides information from him thus from government and thus from the public. If true, this appears to be a legitimate grievance, unless one thinks that some can always keep other members of same body and entity in the dark, and think that it is good.

Puzzling however, is that, incidentally everything came at a time when Meralco is about to hold an election - regular election of the members of its Board of Directors. And Mr. Garcia seems to be campaigning for re-election in there as well as aiming for the votes of independent share-holders and proxy votes for himself and his sides. Fighting for dominance and control, that’s natural and normal in politics. The puzzle is: why is Mr. Garcia saying that Meralco’s profit should be or could be reduced when he ought to be saying that he is the guy who will bring more profits for the Power firm. After all it happens to be an election of share-holders of the firm about two thirds of which is private ownership.

The issues appear to be directed at the general public

Like Power loss adjustment/System Loss Charge. Why are we customers made to pay for power that my next door neighbor has been stealing from Meralco? And there are four families living in this neighbor’s compound. And the bitter sad part of it is that while paying-customers limit themselves to electric fans, thieves have two aircons that people hear running day and night. And people have grown tired of reporting power theft because of Meralco’s in-actions.

Go to 021 Rosal Street, Payatas, you’ll see one such illegal connection in there. It’s been going around 7 years. It’s been ‘cleaned’ about trice within that period by Ningas cogon “saturation drive” but they’re back as soon as Meralco has turned its back. In short, why are people made to pay for loses accrued by Meralco because of its neglect? And these illegal power connections cause additional expenses like replacements of blown cables and/or burnt (expensive) transformers due to overload, plus cost of labor in repairing them!

I, for one, think that Mr. Garcia is talking sense. What he’s saying is in fact what the general public has been complaining ever since. But we all don’t vote in Meralco.

Meanwhile, observers are wondering if:

Is not it possible that Mr. Winston Garcia is simply like doing some tree shaking? Shaking a tree makes its resident ‘evils’ migrate somewhere else. In this case, share owners may want to unload shares. And it will then make it possible for others to buy in, into one of the world’s fattest corporations.

Or, I have kept this to myself until this evening, but I think Mr. Winston Garcia could be aiming for a position in national election this 2010. C/S Channel 9 early this evening confirmed him as one probable Senatorial candidate by the ruling party in the coming National election. Whichever, doesn’t it seem to fit?

Everyone is already campaigning for 2010, actually. Senator Manny Villar about paying for the repatriation of 7 OFWs, Senator Loren Legarda about some social concerns, VP Noli de Castro about pabahay or low cost state housing, there is Mr Palengke, and others doing TV commercial that I wont be surprised if some of them pay instead of being paid to do commercials - all them aired morning till night, daily. Election Campaign Period limitation - why do we Filipinos make burloloy kind of provisions in our laws? This law is toothless if not impractical as demonstrated by almost everyone there now.

TV ad costs a lot. Maybe political campaign period should not be limited. It will be good for the TV industry, too. Sooner or later, masses will come to realize that earliest birds in politics actually are likely to have more worms in some sense. They are likely more selfish and power greedy!

Meanwhile where do we Filipinos go by the high cost of fuel and electricity and spiraling high prices of everything? May maasahan pa ba ang bayan ni Juan after all the smoke of the controversy started by Mr Garcia has cleared? What happened to the rice crisis issue by the way? We now have P 40.00 going P50.00/kg rice out there because people don’t know if we still have the NFA alive out there. There seems to be no more NFA. And people are beginning to tire out of complaining and that could be a bad sign - when people stopped talking and yelling.

Lower electricity rates? Since when?

Praying for a Miracle

I had a talk with Jack M Arricivita this morning. Jack is son of my Compadre, Fortunio G Arricivita. From Jack I’ve learned that his dad, Tony, is in coma. And the sad news about it is that his state could be permanent. From motorcycle accident resulting to head injury.

To Comadre Tessie and Family: Dont lose hope, miracles did sometimes happen.