“It is a dream come true. Old women in the village are literally crying with happiness when they saw long stretches of palay (unhusked rice grain) being spread on the concrete road to dry under the sun. They say this is what they have been waiting for all these years, to see the hacienda producing food for the people and not sugar cane,” said Lito Bais, steward of the United Luisita Workers’ Union.

BY ABNER BOLOS

Gitnang Luzon New Service
Bulatlat.com

HACIENDA LUISITA, Tarlac City (125 kms. morth of Manila) – It’s harvest time and the men and women of Barangay (village) Asturias in Hacienda Luisita are busy cutting rice stalks from the paddies, hauling them to the small mechanical thresher and gathering the golden rice grains into bags for drying and storage.

Rodolfo Tolentino, 56, is all smiles as he tells of his own success. He cultivated three luwangs (about 2,500 sq. meters) four months ago and he harvested 17 sacks of rice. He gave two sacks as payment for the thresher and another sack to his neighbors who helped him in harvesting and had 14 sacks left for his family.

“Mas maganda ngayon. Wala akong amo at napapalitaw namin ang aming pagkain at may kaunti pa kaming pera, (Things are better now. I have no boss and we are able to produce our own food and have a little money), Tolentino told GLNS.

Aside from the rice harvest, he said he earns about P150 ($2.99 at an exchange rate of $1 = P50.01) per day from the vegetables he planted along with the rice.

Indeed, his situation is much better at the time before they launched the strike in November 2004 where they earn a measly P9.50 ($0.19) a week as wage earners in the plantation.

Tolentino, a member of the United Luisita Workers’ Union (ULWU), is reaping the gains from the bungkalan (cultivation), a community effort initiated by the union to transform the 6,000 ha. sugar plantation owned by the family of former president Corazon Cojuangco Aquino into land planted to food crops for the benefit of the farmers.

But more than their success in the cultivation and harvesting of crops, the farm workers in the village are, in effect, implementing land reform solely from their own efforts

Collective farms

More than 200 has. of the 300 ha. agricultural land in the village has been cultivated. Of the 200 has., about 140 has. have been planted to rice and some 60 has. planted to vegetables, according to Lito Bais, ULWU steward and bungkalan leader.

He said that since cultivation started early last year, about 2,000 has. have been made productive in the 10 villages comprising the hacienda, albeit through a slow and gradual process.

While Bais appreciates the efforts of individual tillers, he says it is the collective farms that enabled them to expand production in the face of so many limitations and problems.

More than 20 families are now tilling an average of two to 2 ½ has. Bais said. A system of labor exchange has evolved wherein work such as planting and harvesting in family plots are shared by other families and union members in the village, he said.

“Sa pagtutulungan namin, nagagawa ang trabaho kahit halos walang pera (Through our pooled efforts, work is done even if there is hardly any money), Bais said.

When people realized the benefits of collective work, everybody wants to pitch in to work somebody else’s plot knowing that when it is time to work on his/her farm the rest of the community will be there to help, Bais said.

Good yield

On this day, some 40 farm workers are out in the farm of Federico Cruz cutting rice stalks with scythes and bringing them to the thresher where the grains are separated from the straw and gathered in sacks.

Cruz, 49, already harvested 74 cavans from a portion of his 2 ½ ha. plot. He netted 58 cavans, after deducting costs for the harvest and he expects at least 130 cavans more from the rest of his farm.

He still expects an income of some P30,000 ($599.88 at an exchange rate of $1=P50.01) from the harvest after paying for the loan he incurred for the purchase of 10 bags of fertilizer, two liters of pesticide and about 400 liters of diesel for the deep well irrigation pump.

“Maganda ang ani namin. Hindi namin kikitain ang ganito noong swelduhan pa kami sa asyenda (We have a good yield. We do not earn this much when we were wage-earners at the hacienda), Cruz said.

Gil Palaganas, 56, expects to harvest some 250 cavans from his plot that adjoins Cruz’s. He stayed at the picket line from day 1 until the barricades were lifted, and today is helping Cruz harvest his crop.

Dream come true

“It is a dream come true. Old women in the village are literally crying with happiness when they saw long stretches of palay (unhusked rice grain) being spread on the concrete road to dry under the sun,” Bais said.

“They say this is what they have been waiting for all these years, to see the hacienda producing food for the people and not sugar cane,” Bais said.

Asked about the temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the Supreme Court that temporarily blocked land distribution by the Department of Agrarian Reform in the hacienda, Bais said:

“We are following up the petition submitted by the Solicitor General to lift the TRO. But we will not be bothered much by the delay. Land reform in the hacienda is happening right now from our own efforts.”