Same old exploitation= same old struggle!

Same old exploitation= same old struggle!

(same old notes on the peasant struggle

 in the still-continuing past called Philippines)

It is admissible that it's been a centuries-old clamour for the Filipino peasant to have their own land to till as well as accessibility to services unhampered.

With all the laws supposed to benefit them, it is ideally for the Filipino farmer to gain their right to till, to form cooperatives, to participate in production planning, and to gain access in government assistance, especially those of financial and material needs like seedlings, fertilizers, and even machinery for improving agricultural outputs.

However, knowing that the struggle as decades-old as Rizal’s, it is not unusual that the Filipino peasant is at the mercy of the compradore and of the landlord. And no matter there are laws that supposed to benefit the repressed, there are loopholes in which benefits the disenfranchiser- such as in the case of Hacienda Luisita and other properties of the landed gentries, most of then transforming into corporate-like structures enough to mask its obvious feudal character.

And from there it is worth concerning knowing that with the farmer continuously struggling, as well as the worker in the city and other affected sectors, that centuries-old problem continues to aggravate no matter what the system is “trying to be concerning even at the expense of their assets”yet in fact struggling to consolidate their interests.

In the case of “Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program”, Cory Aquino acknowledged Agrarian Reform as necessary to increase productivity, but at the same time it tries to update feudalism further by adopting some of the corporate aspect. Hacienda Luisita’s peasantfolks were once given stock certificates and becoming “stockholders” only to found that those stock certificates as worthless and instead aggravated their situations as lowest paid laborers- or rather say, didn't even stop protests even it costs their lives like those from Mendiola in 1987 and Hacienda Luisita in 2009. From those examples one would say how that Agrarian Reform in the Philippines is actually an empty rhetoric peddled by the elites whose reason is to silence the growing struggle against them by the peasantry itself.

What more that the system intensifies its neoliberal agenda by providing schemes enough to justify compradore-landlord foothold: in the case of Lapanday few years ago, peasants struggled to gain land only to be threatened by that entity using legal and extralegal means, as well as justified by using red scare tactics and the like; concerned individuals like Rafael Mariano hath been removed from his post as Agrarian Reform Secretary, what more that there are numerous instances of arrests and deaths amongst peasant leaders whose clamour for land is a treat for interests!

And this time, through amending the constitution with provisions making way to opening to foreigners rights for property- this also includes right to take agricultural land directly not just via its domestic counterparts from the peasants and their affected communities! Quite concerning indeed, for as these compradores and landlords, bureaucrats babbling about "charter change" to consolidate their interests is trying to  remove the social justice clause that is also meant to be justified further through an enabling law- and for sure this can't be the "Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program" nor its "Extended and Reformed" version done years ago.

Admittingly speaking, looking back at history, one would say that the struggle for freedom was and is entwined with the struggle to redeem the soil and its right to be tilled by its rightful owner. This post, like the earlier posts related to the peasant struggle, shows that in struggle there lies hope for the peasant; and no matter how the system babbles words like "agrarian reform" and the like, large landholdings of the country’s big family names remain, what more that some are even supported by multi/transnational entities serving as its clients. These include plantations of coconut, sugarcane, banana, pineapple, palm oil, and mango orchards; what more that their monopoly control extends over the country’s natural resources through mining tenements, forest leases and management agreements, foreshore leases, special economic zones, and tourism zones including  those of coastal and marine areas, and even expanding in urban enclaves. And also to think that as peasants continue struggling, threats and abuses will always be the issue in which making the peasant frankly pointing the order that obviously represses them. On the first place, when was the time the system truly represents the peasants? For sure they will babble about series of laws and all that legalese, but are these trustworthy or just blatant rhetorics and pieces of paper compared to those who are being imprisoned, killed, or disappeared?

Perhaps, from this countless struggle one would say that the Philippines, being a proletarian nation, attests to its fact that the country is not just surrounded by its exploiter neighbours, but also attests to its fact that being a semifeudal-semicolonial society means no areas of “class peace”- but rather, areas of intensification of class struggle. From there the peasant, as well as the worker, and other affected sectors, have to unite and fight against the exploiters and disenfranchisers, as well as to create a society based on their aspirations such as peace, justice, freedom, and equality. 

Sounds too much to some if not most people especially in its subversive appeal with words like "class struggle" and the like, but in spite of having a privileged background, this person, being a concerned patriot, recognises the struggle of the Filipino peasant to have its own land, and the will to participate in planning, as well as production for the country's development. Right was Aquino's statement (in spite that she is herself an oligarch) that Agrarian Reform may support the desire to increase productivity, but to make that agrarian reform insincere (knowing that landlords, bureaucrats, and compradores alike are blocking its realisation by mellowing) is bullshit.

To see yearly protest, be it in commemoration of massacres like Mendiola or Hacienda Luisita, campouts near the Agrarian Reform Department's main office, and other actions, the message is clear that the Filipino Peasant issue is still a question that is meant to be addressed seriously and not be treated as a mere propaganda feat meant to silence the growing demand to change the order from its rotting existence.