"No wonder why the issue remains."
(Ramblings in an Agricultural country still mired in poverty, injustice
under modern-day Principalías)
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| Source: Filipinos at War by Carlos Quirino |
"On this giant patch of earth, farmers fighting for their land have been gunned down or snatched in the middle of the night, never to be seen again. Many of the planters have lost a loved one, a friend, a fellow worker to management’s hired goons."
It's been centuries passed since the Spaniards gained foothold in the rich isles from the Asia-Pacific region.
With the crucifix and book in one hand and rapier and cannon on the other, these men hath brought faith, knowledge, alongside exploitation and slander towards those whom had starting to create a civilisation, whose "Anitos" and nature-worship been alongside the Kampilan and the Lantaka.
However, one of the legacies that seemed continuing still is how the system kept its feudalistic tradition in the countryside. That, regardless of modern day "innovations" and "improvements", of modern day edifices and technologies everyone enjoys, same old "affluent" families continues to dominate and exploit in pursuit of interests, especially those whose intentions is quite obvious like the Cojuangcos over Hacienda Luisita and its cash crop such as sugarcane, or the government officials, with their familiar names, yet failed to uplift poor peasants especially those seeking immediate relief while willing to have those well-kept sacks of government-issued rice be taken over by private sellers all for profit.
That somehow made this person ask: what the heck is the system who afforded to babble efficiency, support, service to its still desperate constituents? Like what happened in the past, these corrupt beings that further degenerates the system made everyone sees their community's hopelessness despite these degenerates babbling about efficiency, support, service, commitment, and all other names that sneers everyone through the ears. The issues on Mendiola, Hacienda Luisita, Kidapawan, and other incidents involving these still unfortunate masses has made some, if not most concerned expressed the idea how the issues of the past, regardless of numerous papers and statements, as well as "actions", remained still by these present-day Principalías.
Sounds archaic to say words like "Principalía", "Feudalism", or any other term that meant to be deemphasised in today's generation of "Technocrats" and "Capitalism", what more of using pictures featuring those who executed for their cause and those who expressed anger towards those interest-seeking sonofabitches; but to think that these modern day sonofabitches has afforded to adjust till enough to keep ancient interests, then why there are people, all driven by hunger and thirst for social justice be compelled to march and face the guns to assert their need for food to those of demanding to have land and genuine rural development?
For sure everybody noticed that these modern day "Principalías" such as Landlords, driven by capitalist orientation, may justify terms such as "international demands for various forms of cash crops", if not "expensive costs of agricultural mechanisations" to justify age-old repressions such as those of swarthy, exhausted, machete-welding peasants harvesting sugarcane all for 9.50 Peso wage or circumventing reform bills just to assert their interests and its expansion; while interest-seeking bureaucrats, despite all their justifications and whinings, can't even provide immediate relief and even claiming that their egos been "hurted" by the concerned providing sacks of rice in their bulwarks, worse, having well-hidden sacks of rice from their granaries be sold to private sellers all for kickbacks through various bidding processes.
There are more related issues coming from these "privileged" people who sneer people through the ears with "half-baked" and "wholly rhetorical" promises, of codified yet unmaterialised messages of hopes and aspirations, as well as bloody reprisals that made that goddamn peasant issue remain. Such issues, alongside moral degeneration and a struggling economy did make that the Philippines is still mired in deep poverty with promises of that upheaval have yet to be fulfilled.
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| Source: Filipinos at War by Carlos Quirino |