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CENTRAL LUZON REPORT

Central Luzon is regarded as the rice granary region of the whole Philippines. This report covers two areas in this region: Pangasinan and Bulacan provinces.

Despite the differences between the two areas, the report covers common problems faced by the farmers, peasants and fishermen to whom the groups were exposed.

a) Pangasinan - Calonutian and Soubul

b) Bulacan - Pulang Tamo and Bananawan

Pangasinan: San Nicolas-Barrios Calonutian and Soubul

Barrio Calonutian is situated at the tributary of Chico and Agno rivers and is about 5 kms. from San Nicolas town. It has an estimated population of about 800 inhabitants. The primary livelihood of the people is the cultivation of rice and their secondary means of living is collecting of gold dust (black gold mining) near the river bank.

Our group was informed that the barrio is regarded as one of the poorest barrios in the town. We were first exposed to the situations and problems of the farmers during a brief meeting with the people on the night of our arrival.

Most of the peasants are tenants, i.e. they do not own the lands they till. The lands are owned by landlords who either live in Manila or other cities and towns. The peasants still use traditional methods of cultivation such as animals (buffalos) and ploughs. Most of the work of planting and harvesting are done manually. This indicates that 1) the farmers are that poor not to be able to purchase any machines to help them in their farming, and 2) their productivity is relatively low when compared to using "modern methods" with the aid of machines and fertilizers.

The sharing system, characteristic of their feudal condition, is being practiced. The sharing is on 50-50 basis, which means that out of the total net earning, 50% goes to the landlords and the other 50% to the peasants. The average income earnings of the peasants are about P2, 000 per annum depending upon the produce. To supplement their diet, the farmers grow root crops such as sweet potato, cassava and crops \'^ bananas, etc. but on a very small scale

Besides farming, the peasants also spend a lot of time in collecting gold dust. This is not an easy task because they have to work long hours under the hot sun before they get even one gram of gold dust in one or two days. The gold dust usually is valued for about P29-30 per 2 grams.

Living or subsisting in such conditions we could see and observe some visible signs of the poverty of the people in the area:

— some of them wear the same clothes for a long stretch

— the kind of food they eat

— the frequency they eat (some cannot afford to eat 3 meals a day)

— no electricity — they use coffee bottles for lamps

— no modern conveniences such as radio

We have noticed a very strong sense of collective life among the people. This is seen not only during harvest time but even in daily activities. There is one cooperative store which serves the whole barrio.

Some of the problems which press high on the people are the following:

1) Infrastructure — no roads connecting them to the town of San Nicolas; therefore, they have no access to means of transporting their crops to the town market. To reach the town, they have to walk a distance of about 8 kms. and cross 4 rivers with the products weighing heavily on their shoulders. Sometimes during the rainy season, they are not able to ford the rivers because of floods and this means that their income is greatly affected.

2) Health care - there is no hospital around the area, not even a clinic which will ten" the people for minimum medical services. The problem becomes more acute when

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people get very sick and they need to be rushed to San Nicolas and during rainy or typhoon seasons, the problem is immensely compounded. Once a person who was very sick had to be carried by his family to the hospital but because of the distance and the difficulty in bringing him to town, the sick person died on the way.

3) Education — there is only one primary school in the barrio, which serves 200 pupils. After primary grades, the very few who can afford go to town for secondary schooling. There are no school fees in the primary school although the parents pay P1.00 for Boy Scout activities.

4) Pollution — the farmers are facing grave water pollution problem which affects their paddy fields. The Agno river, from which they get their water for their rice fields, has been heavily polluted by the copper mine at the upper part of the river. The degree of pollution has been accelerating since the establishment, of the copper mine forty years ago. A lot of crops have been destroyed affecting the very livelihood of the people.

5) Protection Dike Construction — this is the most pressing problem of the peasants. The dike, which is a government project, will, according to the authorities, protect the rice fields should floods come. It will cover about 500 to 600 meters from the bank of the rivers and is now under construction. The peasants have been opposing the construction because even though the dike shall protect the farms and houses from floods, it will also leave the fields unproductive due to lack of water. That is, unless the engineers can build breaches through it to allow the water to flow into the rice fields. The farmers have organized themselves into an association and have sent a petition to the government. On two counts, the authorities had turned them down: first, the government refused to recognize the peasants' association and, second, the government responded negatively to their petition. Instead, it gave the farmers an alternative solution: migrate and be evacuated some where else.

6) Resettlement — against the will of the people, the plan is to move the people to Palawan, southern Philippines. The people together with the social action group, are still trying to elevate their problems to higher authorities. But so far no response to their petitions has been received.

Although feeling frustrated because of so many disappointments, the people with the help of some social workers are trying hard to solve their problems. One of the things they do is to try to understand their situation and why they are neglected by the government.

Our group spent only one night in the next barrio — Soubol which is located at the tributary of the two rivers, about 6 kms. from San Nicolas. About 1000 people inhabit the place. We have found the problems and situation in this barrio very much akin to those found in Calonutan. And again, the most urgent of their problems is the construction of the protection dike which will also mean the drying up of their farmlands and the eventual uprooting of the whole barrio.

Bulacan: Pulangtamo and Bananawan

Pulangtamo has a population of about 1,000 and is located about 17 kms. from Malolos. The farmers here are mostly tenants, which mean they work for landlords. Their food is mainly rice, root crops and other forest crops as substitutes. Although in general, the peasants use traditional methods of farming, there a handful of them who have hand tractors for use in the rice fields. They also have access to roads which enable them to market their harvests and crops.

The average income of the farmers is P3.000 to P4.000 per annum. This is a little bit more than what the farmers earn in Calonutan and Soubul.

The group discussed with the farmers mostly problems concerning their work of farming.

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The foremost problem is irrigation. The lack of water has done a lot of damage on the crops; thus, the farmers can only plant and harvest once a year. The farmers have also experienced some pestilence like the rats' plague, rice diseases like "tongu" and most lately, a pernicious type of wild weeds have been destroying their crops. Also, the lack of resources to buy fertilizers was mentioned.

Bananawan

Bananawan, which has a population of about 2,000, is located near the sea. People there derive their income largely from fishing. An average fisherman may earn about P25 to P30 per day, depending on the catch of the day. The annual income of a fisherman in the fisher village could range from P7.000 to P8,000 per annum. This means that by and large, the people in Bananawan are a bit better off than those in the other barrios visited by the group.

Even on the physical level and through short observation, the groups were impressed with the relatively better living conditions of the people in the barrio. We saw a number of houses with radios, some with television sets, and other luxurious items, which we never encountered in the other barrios. We also observed that a greater time of the day was spent by many fishermen in talking and drinking beer.

Such appearance, however, does not represent the whole reality in the village. For the reality is that about 90% of the fishermen are poor. They do not have motor boats or big fishing nets. They rent the motor boats and big nets from the rich fishermen. To square off their debt, they give up 50% of their daily income to the rich fishermen. So here we see the sharing system based on 50-50 operating in a feudal set-up.

Conclusions

The group concluded that the realities they were confronted with in the four barrios visited during the live-in experiences reflect in a great similar way the problems in almost all the third world countries: the exploitation of the masses by the few, the enjoyment of the wealth and resources of the earth by the powerful at the cost of the great many, and the continuing dependency of the masses on the very "haves" who constitute only a very small percentage of the total population.

Group Members:

Paul Masta, Paul Sarkar, Alongkorn Panlaboot, Sushil Jacob and Zulkifly Lubis