Peasant Solon Lectures House
149 legislators get crash course on Peasant 101
Condensed from an article in Bulatlat.com by
GERRY ALBERT CORPUZ
The session hall of the House of Representatives took a different turn last 16 August. Instead of the usual rambunctious speech dished out by most regular members of the House, some 149 congressmen sat attentively to hear the first speech delivered by a colleague representing the peasantry.
Rafael “Ka Paeng” Mariano, 48, a representative from the Anakpawis (toiling masses) party-list, was no stranger to a speaker’s podium: As chair of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP, Peasant Movement in the Philippines) for several years, Mariano led and spoke in rallies, and he was also frequently invited to international forums.
Clad in plain barong tagalog donated by a friend, Mariano’s debut privileged speech in the landlord-dominated House was itself a first: He gave his fellow legislators a version of Peasant 101. Peasant 101 is a mass course on the plight of Filipino farmers, which is usually discussed in peasant villages and fisherfolk communities.
At exactly 7:42 p.m., Mariano addressed the House. In his speech, Ka Paeng ridiculed President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address (SONA), which aside from imposing additional tax measures, promised economic growth and to create 10 million jobs in six years. He asked: “Does Mrs. Arroyo have magic?” The speech was an all-out, hard-hitting political piece directed against the President’s shotgun proposals for legislation.
Mariano dismissed Mrs. Arroyo’s ambition to create 10 million jobs in the next six years as out of this world, rhetoric and the grandmother of all slogans. Citing official sources, he said the country’s employment rate has been sinking from 88.2 percent rate of employment in April 1999 to 86.3 percent in April 2004. He added that today, 4.9 million Filipinos are jobless with unemployment rate going up to 13.7 percent as of April, compared to 12.2 percent in the same month last year. In the agriculture and fisheries sectors, labor statistics showed that 481,000 farmers and small fisherfolk were displaced from their main source of livelihood. Ka Paeng asked what will the President do since even the National Statistics Office (NSO) is having a hard time hiding the truth.
Alarming
Mariano said that the conversion of agricultural lands to non-agricultural uses has been accelerating at an alarming rate, with farmlands devoted to rice production shrinking by 19 percent from 3.4 million hectares in 1991 to 2.8 million hectares in 2001. He also scored the Arroyo administration’s proposal to allot one million to two million hectares of agricultural lands to agribusiness expansion in the country.
The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) accomplishment report from 1998-2003 reveals that from the targeted 4.29 million hectares of agricultural lands, the DAR distributed only 3.412 million hectares, with a backlog of 876,000 hectares target for distribution. Granting that these figures were accurate, Ka Paeng asked where will the President get the one million to two million hectares she plans to bargain with agribusiness. A study made by the Anakpawis party predicts that the administration’s plan will result to the eviction of one million peasants from their farmlands given the average size of one-half hectare distributed by DAR to every farmer beneficiary of its land reform program.
The party list solon also lambasted business tycoon Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco in his maiden speech and cited his case as classic example on the perils and evils of agribusiness expansion in the country. Mariano said the Isabela-based peasant association, Danggayan Dagiti Mannalon ti Isabela (Dagami) is opposed to the grandiose project of Cojuangco’s business empire San Miguel Corporation (SMC) plan to convert 150,000 hectares of farmlands covering the province’s 13 towns as the biggest cassava plantation in the country, along with another 150,000 hectares planned in Cagayan province.
Not only collateral damage
The peasant congressman also assailed Malacanang’s proposal for Congress to pass a law on Farmlands as Bank Collateral, identified by economic planning secretary Romulo Neri as a necessary legislative measure. Mariano stressed that the proposal was closely attuned to imperialist globalization and market-driven land reform program.
Citing Land Bank data, Mariano said only 90,311 farmer beneficiaries were able to pay land amortization, or about 2 percent of the total 4.3 million beneficiaries of the government’s land reform program. He added that reports from regional chapters of KMP indicate that 43,598 hectares of prime agricultural lands in Southern Tagalog were converted to export-oriented and import-dependent industrial and commercial undertakings. He cited that inside the Clark Special Economic Zone in Pampanga, 44,000 hectares of farmlands were turned into industrial and commercial zones at the expense of not less than 10,000 tilling families inside the former US airbase.
Below par performance
Mariano also disputed a claim by the Department of Agriculture (DA) that the agriculture and fisheries sector posted a gross income of P 664.7 billion from January to December 2003. Despite the frequent visits of typhoons, the DA said that the sector recorded a 3.77 percent growth rate last year or an increase of 6.02 percent compared to 2002. Meanwhile, the fishery sector grew by 7.51 percent in 2003, with aquaculture providing the biggest increase with production growing by 8.9 percent. Municipal production went up by 6.66 percent and commercial fishery posted an increase of 6.38 percent.
Mariano dismissed the claimed outputs in agriculture and fisheries as par below performance and “statistically improbable”, adding that the growth rates did not reflect in the economic status and standard of living of millions of people in the countryside.
Before serving Congress, Mariano was also chair of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN, New Patriotic Alliance). The farmer only reached first year college and had to drop out from an agricultural school in Central Luzon because his parents could not afford it. He got involved in the Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon-Nueva Ecija Chapter (Alliance of Farmers in Central Luzon) during Martial Law and later became Secretary General of the region-wide Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Gitnang .
Mariano’s KMP advocates genuine agrarian reform and many of its leaders and members in the rural provinces found themselves victims of human rights violations. He joined Anakpawis last year as national president. -end-
Condensed from an article in Bulatlat.com by
GERRY ALBERT CORPUZ
The session hall of the House of Representatives took a different turn last 16 August. Instead of the usual rambunctious speech dished out by most regular members of the House, some 149 congressmen sat attentively to hear the first speech delivered by a colleague representing the peasantry.
Rafael “Ka Paeng” Mariano, 48, a representative from the Anakpawis (toiling masses) party-list, was no stranger to a speaker’s podium: As chair of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP, Peasant Movement in the Philippines) for several years, Mariano led and spoke in rallies, and he was also frequently invited to international forums.
Clad in plain barong tagalog donated by a friend, Mariano’s debut privileged speech in the landlord-dominated House was itself a first: He gave his fellow legislators a version of Peasant 101. Peasant 101 is a mass course on the plight of Filipino farmers, which is usually discussed in peasant villages and fisherfolk communities.
At exactly 7:42 p.m., Mariano addressed the House. In his speech, Ka Paeng ridiculed President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address (SONA), which aside from imposing additional tax measures, promised economic growth and to create 10 million jobs in six years. He asked: “Does Mrs. Arroyo have magic?” The speech was an all-out, hard-hitting political piece directed against the President’s shotgun proposals for legislation.
Mariano dismissed Mrs. Arroyo’s ambition to create 10 million jobs in the next six years as out of this world, rhetoric and the grandmother of all slogans. Citing official sources, he said the country’s employment rate has been sinking from 88.2 percent rate of employment in April 1999 to 86.3 percent in April 2004. He added that today, 4.9 million Filipinos are jobless with unemployment rate going up to 13.7 percent as of April, compared to 12.2 percent in the same month last year. In the agriculture and fisheries sectors, labor statistics showed that 481,000 farmers and small fisherfolk were displaced from their main source of livelihood. Ka Paeng asked what will the President do since even the National Statistics Office (NSO) is having a hard time hiding the truth.
Alarming
Mariano said that the conversion of agricultural lands to non-agricultural uses has been accelerating at an alarming rate, with farmlands devoted to rice production shrinking by 19 percent from 3.4 million hectares in 1991 to 2.8 million hectares in 2001. He also scored the Arroyo administration’s proposal to allot one million to two million hectares of agricultural lands to agribusiness expansion in the country.
The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) accomplishment report from 1998-2003 reveals that from the targeted 4.29 million hectares of agricultural lands, the DAR distributed only 3.412 million hectares, with a backlog of 876,000 hectares target for distribution. Granting that these figures were accurate, Ka Paeng asked where will the President get the one million to two million hectares she plans to bargain with agribusiness. A study made by the Anakpawis party predicts that the administration’s plan will result to the eviction of one million peasants from their farmlands given the average size of one-half hectare distributed by DAR to every farmer beneficiary of its land reform program.
The party list solon also lambasted business tycoon Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco in his maiden speech and cited his case as classic example on the perils and evils of agribusiness expansion in the country. Mariano said the Isabela-based peasant association, Danggayan Dagiti Mannalon ti Isabela (Dagami) is opposed to the grandiose project of Cojuangco’s business empire San Miguel Corporation (SMC) plan to convert 150,000 hectares of farmlands covering the province’s 13 towns as the biggest cassava plantation in the country, along with another 150,000 hectares planned in Cagayan province.
Not only collateral damage
The peasant congressman also assailed Malacanang’s proposal for Congress to pass a law on Farmlands as Bank Collateral, identified by economic planning secretary Romulo Neri as a necessary legislative measure. Mariano stressed that the proposal was closely attuned to imperialist globalization and market-driven land reform program.
Citing Land Bank data, Mariano said only 90,311 farmer beneficiaries were able to pay land amortization, or about 2 percent of the total 4.3 million beneficiaries of the government’s land reform program. He added that reports from regional chapters of KMP indicate that 43,598 hectares of prime agricultural lands in Southern Tagalog were converted to export-oriented and import-dependent industrial and commercial undertakings. He cited that inside the Clark Special Economic Zone in Pampanga, 44,000 hectares of farmlands were turned into industrial and commercial zones at the expense of not less than 10,000 tilling families inside the former US airbase.
Below par performance
Mariano also disputed a claim by the Department of Agriculture (DA) that the agriculture and fisheries sector posted a gross income of P 664.7 billion from January to December 2003. Despite the frequent visits of typhoons, the DA said that the sector recorded a 3.77 percent growth rate last year or an increase of 6.02 percent compared to 2002. Meanwhile, the fishery sector grew by 7.51 percent in 2003, with aquaculture providing the biggest increase with production growing by 8.9 percent. Municipal production went up by 6.66 percent and commercial fishery posted an increase of 6.38 percent.
Mariano dismissed the claimed outputs in agriculture and fisheries as par below performance and “statistically improbable”, adding that the growth rates did not reflect in the economic status and standard of living of millions of people in the countryside.
Before serving Congress, Mariano was also chair of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN, New Patriotic Alliance). The farmer only reached first year college and had to drop out from an agricultural school in Central Luzon because his parents could not afford it. He got involved in the Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon-Nueva Ecija Chapter (Alliance of Farmers in Central Luzon) during Martial Law and later became Secretary General of the region-wide Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Gitnang .
Mariano’s KMP advocates genuine agrarian reform and many of its leaders and members in the rural provinces found themselves victims of human rights violations. He joined Anakpawis last year as national president. -end-
<< Home