Kim’s Dream Orlan Ravanera
Our Firm Salute to Hon. Mayor Elvino “Nono” Balicao, Jr.
It seems an unbelievable phenomenon but the strong will of the honorable Mayor of the municipality of Wao, Lanao del Sur to recognize the prior right of the farmers through the issuance of Individual Property Right (IPR) to some 500 farmer-occupants has barred the entry of two powerful corporations. The amazing decision of Mayor Nono Balicao, Jr. which essentially followed the rule of law can be considered as a countervailing force against the pronouncement of the Southern Philippines Development Authority (SPDA) that declared owning some 26,000 hectares for its Agro-Industrial Development Program. Such declaration is apparently in gross violation of the priority rights of the settlers and their descendants who have been occupying the 16,000 hectares in Wao and the 10,000 hectares in Amai Manabilang since the 1950s when they came as settlers during the term of the Man of the Masses, President Ramon Magsaysay.
It can be aptly claimed now that such amazing act of the honorable mayor of following the rule of law has astonishingly saved the people of Wao from what is happening now in Sumogot, Amai Manabilang, Lanao del Sur whose mayor is in full support of the entry corporations. Social injustice, massive repression, violence and the non-stop coercive eviction of the farmers through the non-stop tractoring of their planted crops by the powerful corporations, backed-up by the PNP, AFP and LGU, are the painful social realities besetting some one thousand Ilocano settlers. No way can these painful realities happen if only the honorable Mayor of Amai Manabilang has recognized the prior rights of the Ilocano settlers.
What is so amazing is that when Mayor Nono Balicao, Jr. followed the rule of law by respecting the prior right of the Wao farmers, he has trailblazed justice, peace, and sustainability. Indeed, as constitutionally declared, “No person shall be deprived of life liberty and property without due process of law.” Through the issuance of Individual Property Right (IPR), no Wao farmer has been forcibly evicted unlike what is happening now in Amai Manabilang. Indeed, Wao Mayor has exemplified that in this country, no one is above the law; all must bow down to the majesty of the law because we follow the rule of law and not of power, of money and of the guns. To those serving the interest of powerful and wealthy foreign corporations, they may have forgotten the constitutional declaration that, “In a Republican and Democratic State, sovereignty resides with the people and all governmental powers emanate from them.” Too, these government officials must be reminded of the Constitutional declaration that, “A public office is a public trust and all government officials and employees must exercise their functions to the highest degree of commitment, dedication and service to the Filippino people.” As the Ilocano settlers are now crying in pain as they have become victims of horrible social injustices, let us be reminded of the constitutional declaration that, “The State shall promote social justice in all phases of national development.” Livelihood and food are basic human rights of the farmers. What is happening now in Amai Manabilang is apparently a gross violation of their human rights.
As exemplified by the Amai Manabilang experience, the entry of corporations through corporate globalization is based on the enclosures of the commons (land), enclosures which imply exclusions and are based on violence. Instead of a culture of abundance, profit driven-globalization creates culture of exclusion, dispossession, and scarcity. In fact, globalization’s transformation of all beings and resources into commodities robs diverse species and people of their rightful share of ecological, cultural, economic, and political space. The “ownership” of the rich is based on the “dispossession” of the poor – it is the common, public resources of the poor which are privatized, and the poor who are disowned economically, politically, and culturally.
The settlers in Wao as well as in Amai Manabilang, hard-working, compassionate and nature-loving, have amazingly exemplified their oneness and inter-connectivity with the blessed land. In the last 60 years, the settlers and their descendants have wonderfully developed their agricultural lands sustainably following nature’s and sustenance economy, treating nature as like a “home” where their basic needs and the communities are provided for. No way must they be displaced by corporations to transform their choicest of land into massive plantations to supply the consumerist needs of the people in advanced countries while we cannot even produce basic staples for our hungry Filipino people. These corporations are not allowed to operate in other countries (i.e. Puerto Rico & Costa Rica) as their heavy usage of toxic chemicals is eliminating and polluting the watersheds that is causing cancer and deformities of new born babies – thus, they are entering our country. What is now essential and imperative, according to the environmentalist Mayor of Wao, is to promote SUSTAINABLE AGRO-FORESTRY for food security and to regain back our country’s ecological integrity, after losing the 17 million hectares of dipterocarp forest in the last century through massive illegal logging. Wao is now a First Class Municipality and NEVER should it be sub-divided as WAO means WE ARE ONE.
Indeed, short, and long-term development can be won or lost through agriculture, our country being an agricultural country. But paradoxically, hunger is high in Mindanao which has been described as the country’s “food basket,” but amidst the bounty lies so much poverty because of the powerlessness of the Mindanawons to have control over their resources. WHO CONTROLS? WHO DECIDES? WHO BENEFITS? Not the Filipinos but the modern-day “Conquestadores,” the Trans-National Corporations in cohort with the oligarchs advancing corporate globalization, transforming some 200,000 hectares of Mindanao’s choicest of land into massive plantations.
To liberate our people from the quagmire of hunger and poverty and to regain back our lost ecological integrity, we need transformative leaders to trailblaze an empowering path for PEOPLE, PLANET, PROSPERITY, AND PEACE. That much awaited leader has now finally come in the municipality of Wao, Lanao del Sur – Hon. Mayor Elvino “Nono” Balicao, Jr., exemplifying amazing leadership to advance PEACE, JUSTICE & SUSTAINABILITY –all for God’s greater glory. To Mayor Nono, our firm salute and warm embrace! May your outstanding leadership reverberate to affect a paradigm shift through the much-awaited awakening process in a world that is suffering in collective insanity, buried deeply in unbridled materialism and consumerism. Indeed, we must not maximize consumer goods and short-term profit but maximize our values to live a different way of life by having NEW CONCIOUSNESS to serve the least of our brethren, debunking the Satanic Ego. The good mayor’s firm stand not to sacrifice Mother Earth and the people to the altar of greed and profit should also be the mindset of everyone as thousands of scientists worldwide have already set the dooms-day clock to “one minute before midnight” as the earth is now falling into the precipice of its 6th extinction through ecological catastrophe. Let our oneness with nature and with all of God’s creation shines amidst the darkness of the EGO and with one voice shout, WE LOVE YOU GAIA (Mother Earth). Only then can we connect with the Unseen Formless Being called God!
