Since time memorial, from the period of the Spanish Occupation up to today's Aquino regime, farmers' rights and their development has been oppressed, opportunities for personal growth have come far and gone, livelihood reduced to the idea of working more than 10 hours under the heat of the sun for meager alms.
From the many friars who claimed vast lands from our landless farmers, up to the current time of the Hacienda Luisita controversy, our farmers are still fighting the same fight they have fought for more than a century now, and that is their right to own land.
The problem of our farmers is indicative of where the Filipino lies amongst its neighbour countries, when it comes to Human Development. Our development has been stagnant, much affected by political instability in the country, the neglect of policymakers on the importance of agriculture, the technocrats' constricted view of liberalization and the ravage of climate change to our lands.
As of 2009, we are ranked 105th among 182 countries (0.751 HDI-Human Development Index-combination of factors such as life expectancy, education/literacy rate and GDP per capita) when it comes to human development, and worse, 124th out of 182 countries when it comes to GDP per capita (currently pegged at $3,406).
Our farmers, they are best representative of the Filipino people. They can be characterized as hard workers, perseverant, dedicated people, yet they do not have the educational/informed means to elevate themselves from their state of poverty. Some of them cannot afford to send their children to school, thus, they too become farmers, thinking of the same way for their soon to be children, thus a generation of farmers who don't have the avenue to think beyond their self-made convention of everyday living. They try to make do out of the small monuments they receive from a day's hard work, and often end up getting sick, dying later on without access to basic health services. They are often the subject of abuse, and when they organize themselves into groups, their leaders get offered a high price to betray them or if they don't consent, they end up being killed without being brought to the courts of justice, like desaparecidos.
I will not try to historically place this speech, but I will make it more thought empowering, rather than the usual thought inspiring or thought provoking.
NORMATIVE SIDE
Yes, we are into the second decade of the 21st century, and perhaps, the penultimate stage of the age of information. But our world, the farmers' world in the countryside, seems not to be interconnected.
When we come to complain about regular power shortages (brownouts or blackouts), do we even realize that some of our farmers do not even have electricity in their far flung areas? When we come to complain about the lack of a system of education, do we even know that farmers' families do not even have the means to send their children to schooling? When we complain about traffic in many major roads, do we even realize that farmers' do not have the avenue to a road infrastructure to connect them to markets?
Media often does not place it regularly in the headlines, only when there's a problem, a crisis or an impending shortage of basic commodities. Our farmers and their situation are only often used a subject to radiate concern and generate mileage and ratings, to entice isolated, but non-sustainable action from government.
Citizens of the urbanized areas, meanwhile, pity in the disgrace of the less privileged farmers, but do not even try to extend a hand when they are ravaged, most damaged during calamities, where as their contribution when it comes to our food security is so invaluable to our everyday living. Instead, we misdirect our pledges and assistance to those who have two hands that do nothing.
Our Human Development is at its lowest because of our neglect towards the countryside, the inhabitants of our farmlands, the stewards of food production in our country. How many people in farmlands have not been captured by census probes? How many schools are there in the far flung areas? How many people in the rural areas do not have access to public health services? It is not only alarming, it's disgusting.
The noisy urban poor sectors in the country have been an excess baggage in the government funded peasantry and dole out programs, because they have the right to media, and when they carry a constituency with them, politicians are threatened to submit to their whims for their own political survival. But what about those in the rural areas? How about their knowledge on organized efforts? Are they even aware they have that right and avenues can be explored to express their advocacies?
POSITIVE SIDE
From the 1970's up to the 2000's, the annual growth of the agriculture has been in a constant decline, from 5.8 % in the 1970's, 2.4% in the 80's and 2.0% in the 90's, and we are expecting an all-time low from years 2000-2010 because of our importation policy when it comes to some crops and commodities, also known as the agricultural deregulation. The problem with this logic, however, is that it ignores issues on limited access of farmers to technology, market information and rural credit.
Our policies on Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization and Small Farmers Development has been hampered by weak funding and is subsumed by the deregulation program and our supposed commitments in the agriculture sector to the WTO and the AFTA (ASEAN Free Trade Area).
Why is it important that we look at the behavioral and factual approach towards finding the real problems of our farmers? Because positively and normatively (in economic terms), our holistic attack on the problem have failed us for many decades.
Why did I focus on the farmers' state, whereas, I should have been talking about Human Development. Isn't this reflective of our competitive capability, when it comes to Human Development?
FARMERS as a MICROCOSM of the FILIPINO'S HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Just like farmers, no matter how good/skilled Filipino's are naturally, if we do not have the means to education, if we do not have the capability to find alternative livelihood, jobs outside of the popular ones, if we do not have access to basic health coverage, if we do not have sustainable policies on the development of our laborers, then the concept of Human Development would forever be a dream, far away from reality.
Policies that promote opportunity, and not dole outs, should be the ultimate priority of the current government. While it is important to maintain some of the government funded peasantry programs, we have to steer away from a culture of breeding dependency amongst our people.
For example, CARP or CARPER maybe a tool for Social Justice, by giving away lands to our farmers. But unless we give them the managerial capability, the technological expertise, the access to capital they can make profitable, then we also commit an injustice to them, by not providing them distributive justice that is ought to them. To cut cost, so that other funds can be re-channelled to more beneficiaries and to capacitate them to be independent after providing them the sufficient assistance, we ought to promote a program that will 1.) Give them the tools to be agriculturally productive, 2.) Provide other means for them to find alternative livelihood through agro-industrial entrepreneurship, 3.) Monitor their performance and assess what areas they need help more on, and then direct aid in the proper areas. In this way, we are becoming fiscally responsible and teaching them to be independent, until such time they can already sustain for themselves.
This model of assistance should be replicated in other sectors that have been neglected. We cannot afford to be in perpetual state of financing them without realizing the investments' social and economic returns.
We do not want to become overly ambitious with the state of our human development in the country. It would take years, decades to fully realize a developed Filipino people, manifested in behavior and in statistical outputs. But our focus should not only be on the temporal needs of the disparate sectors, rather, our outlook should be modelled towards sustainability which breeds independence.We have the tools to compete with other countries. We have dynamic, intelligent and dedicated people capable of bringing more inflows when it comes to National Wealth. What we need is to cultivate an environment and a culture of SUSTAINABLE OPPORTUNITY.
Our Human Development relies in the inter-connectedness of the efforts of all stakeholders in society, under one vision- and that is to grow and develop together, to achieve economic prosperity.
"A FARMER, A MAN- FREE FROM THE BONDAGE OF HISTORICAL SLAVERY, and READY FOR THE CHALLENGES OF TODAY'S MODERN SOCIETY."
AARON BENEDICT DE LEON
2010 LAKAS-KAMPI-CMD Presidential Campaign (Gilbert Teodoro) Platform Spokesperson
Secretary-General, YOUTH Philippines
Corporate Affairs, GREEN TEAM PILIPINAS
http://spokespersonabdl.blogspot.com/
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