Case Involving Social & Political Issues
1. Farmer
Manong Jose is a share tenant of two hectares of rice land. He is 35 years old but he looks very much older than his age. He lives with his sick wife, an aging father and five children. The two eldest are dropouts from school. His bamboo house in the rice field is one kilometer away from the nearest dirt road, which is inaccessible to traffic. The rice yield which Manong Jose receives is a mere 30 cavans per hectare instead of a possible 100 cavans, if only he had enough capital to buy better seedlings and fertilizers. Because of the absence of irrigation he gets only one harvest per year instead of two. Actually he doesn’t bother about better irrigation for after all under the present sharing system his landlord would be getting most of the profit anyhow, being 1/3 of the harvest. In fact, Manong Jose does not have to follow this sharing system because the Land Reform Code provides that all rice cropping falls under the leasehold system. Manong Jose gently hinted this proposal to his landlord who said that if the leasehold system were followed that would be the end of their friendship and that Manong Jose could no longer expect “emergency assistance.” This was too great a price for Manong Jose to pay, so he accepted the status quo. At harvest time 1/3 of Manong Jose’s efforts are disposed of to his landlord. Because he needs money and has no storing facilities, he is forced to sell the remainder of his harvest immediately even when prices are low. The price he receives is still reduced considerably because of the hauling costs due to bad roads. He sells his yield to the same dealer (who has storing facilities) from whom he borrows money at a very high rate of interest at planting season. Year by year Manong Jose’s plight becomes worse, because the cost of living continues to rise at a rate out of all proportion to the small rise in the selling price of his product. He would have wished to have enough to educate his children that they at least could enjoy a better life, but alas Manong Jose has ceased to try. He is caught on all sides so he rationalized, “What is the use of trying?” Other cases or Situations 1. Wealth is concentrated in the hands of the few while the broad of masses of people own little. Distribution becomes more compelling in present times when technological advances have made possible the ever increasing production of wealth. Wealth cannot be left piling up in the hands of a few. It has to be divided equitably among the people, for the stability of society itself. Actually, it is not that difficult to re-distribute wealth, if there be the political will to do it. The best of plans, however, flounder before a government that favors with the rich. And this, unfortunately, is the case of the Philippines. All the powers of government, from the Barangay Captain to the President of the Philippines, are in the hands of landlords and capitalists, local as well as foreign, who naturally make use of such power to protect and promote their interests, thereby becoming richer and richer. 2. Inequalities exist in the Philippines. One region is to an extent developed, while other regions are depressed. The most developed region in the Philippines is the National Capital Region, Metro Manila namely, while the least developed are Bicol, Cagayan Valley, Eastern Visayas and Mindanao. (Ibon: Facts and Figures, November 15, 1989, p.1) 3. Sumilao, Bukidnon has an extensive tract of land with an area of 1,440,000 square meters which is owned by a single family who was not actually the ones tilling the land. In 1994 the said land was placed under the Comprehensive Land Reform Program of the government for distribution to the farmers supposedly tilling the land. However, an Executive order (EO) was issued the following year removing the same from the program and converting it to agro-industrial use. The said EO was questioned before the Supreme Court (SC) but on April 24, 1998, the SC affirmed the validity of the EO. The SC even subsequently ruled that the protesting farmers are not real parties in-interest and were not entitled to the land since it was no longer under CARP thereby paving the way for its sale to SMFI, a subsidiary of SMC, which started developing the property into an agro-industrial estate. The aggrieved farmers dramatized their grievance by walking 1700 kilometers to get the sympathy and attention of the nation. The farmers’ cause indeed appears valid and politically correct enough to impel Malacanang into voiding the 1995 EO and once more placing the said property under land reform allegedly because the conditions for the conversion of the land into agro-industrial use were violated. (Excerpted from the “Opinion by Jose C. Sison: SUMILAO”, Philippine Star, December 21, 2007) 4. Northern Samar, Sulu and Masbate are the "poorest" provinces in the Philippines, according to the National Poverty Map 2007 prepared by the Peace and Equity Foundation (PEF)… the three provinces had the "most pronounced conditions of poverty" among the Philippines' 81 provinces. PEF ranked the provinces based on various government poverty indicators, including the lack of housing, lack of access to clean water, sanitation facilities, incidence of malnutrition and income level. Following Northern Samar, Sulu and Masbate at the low end of the PEF Development Index were Basilan, Western Samar, Tawi-Tawi, Maguindanao, Sarangani, Zamboanga del Norte and Negros Oriental. In terms of poverty incidence, Zamboanga del Norte topped the list with 64.6 percent of families living below the poverty level, according to the latest 2003 government figures. Following Zamboanga del Norte are Maguindanao (60.4 percent), Masbate (55.9 percent), Surigao del Norte (54.5 percent) and Agusan del Sur (52.8 percent). In the area of sanitation, Tawi-Tawi was worst off with only 46.9 percent of the households having access to a toilet. Also lacking in terms of sanitation are Masbate, Samar, Basilan, Northern Samar, Sarangani, Sorsogon, Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental and Cebu. (An excerpt from the article “Poverty map shows poorest RP provinces,” Cebu Daily News April 13, 2008) 5. An invitation to calculate for our country 6,500,000,000 PHP for ONE FAMILY IS EQUAL TO: Luxury cars they could parade in the streets with no speed limit, coding, or any respect for traffic policies Vacation houses that would be empty for 11.75 months a year Family vacations in Europe, the US, the Moon, etc. Handbags that are more expensive than low cost houses Watches that could send a dozen scholars to school from pre-school to high school 6,500,000,000 PHP for ONE FAMILY IS EQUAL TO: 108,000 families that would be given decent homes that they could live in for 15-20 years; 77,380 employees that would be fairly supported for one year; 135,416 Scholars who could go to decent colleges for four years; 40,000 people who would get health insurance for a year 11,607 Scholars who could study in ATENEO or LA SALLE for 4 years with stipend and school supplies allowance 9,285 Public School libraries that would serve 18,570,000 public school students WHAT IS 130 MILLION DOLLARS TO YOU? - How many schools would that be? - How many children would be given laptops for their education? - How many street children could be saved from the streets? (An excerpt from the article of Reese Fernandez, Team RP entitled What is $130 Million?) 6. Shabbily built roads. In a presentation Wednesday, Code-NGO officers said PDAF Watch "monitors" from around the country, who worked on the project between 2005 and 2006, reported the following: - Of the 64 road projects nationwide that were covered by the report, 18 projects, or 28 percent, were found "defective" when inspected less than a year after their completion. The shabbily built roads already had potholes, cracks, or thinning layers of concrete or gravel. - Of the same sample, two road projects were actually nonexistent yet declared "completed" in documents the volunteers had obtained from the Department of Public Works and Highways. - The cost of the defective roads totaled P14 million, or 17 percent of the P84.6 million spent for the 64 roads in the sample. - Of the seven IT projects monitored, six had PCs costing P217,500 each "even though their parts were unbranded" or could be had for much lower prices in the market. (An excerpt from the article More pork graft exposed --PCs at P217,500 each for Luzon IT projects, By Volt Contreras Philippine Daily Inquirer March 22, 2007) |
1. What have you discovered about the situation of Manong Jose and his family?
2. Is Manong Jose's situation shared by many of Filipino farmers? Describe the situation. 3. Are there any other groups of people aside from farmers who are suffering similar hardship? 4. What would you underline as the main causes of Manong Jose's poverty? 5. What structure(s) could possibly help Manong Jose? Why? |