Kim’s Dream Orlan Ravanera
The People’s Battlecry: Environmental and Social Justice!
We Filipinos are freedom-loving people as history tells us how the Filipinos resisted against the subjugation of Filipinos by colonizers which were done then through injustices and corruption, It is so painful to note that while our country has been unfettered from colonial rule but the new colonizers loomed fronted by TNCs, oligarchs, cartel and conglomerate in cohort with corrupt politicians, Another kind of subjugation became the order of the day is being done through social injustices and corruption.
It has therefore become imperative to promote social justice. Before we can promote social justice, let us reflect for a while and know the horrible “faces” of social injustice in the life of the workers, famers, indigenous peoples, fisherfolk and the common “tao” in a country that declares in the Fundamental Law (Art. II, Sec.10) that, “The State shall promote social justice in all phases of national development.”
The workers are producers of the wealth of the nation, yet, they live in dire poverty. In fact, they are leaving in droves, as if jumping from a “sinking ship,” to find jobs in foreign lands, leaving their love ones behind at so much social cost.
Food comes from their farms but the dining tables of the farmers fall short of it, tilling lands not their own and if they do, tied-up to costly seeds and technologies that adhere to conventional agriculture which is beyond their control. They sell their products under the mercy of “compradors,” following an oppressive marketing system that makes their farming non-viable. Aptly described as the “unsung heroes” and the “backbone” of the country, yet, they wallow inside the vicious cycle of poverty. What makes it more painful is that there are agricultural programs designed to somehow alleviate their economic difficulties to increase their productivity (i.e. financial assistance for farm inputs and post harvest facilities), yet, could not reach them as these are trapped in the pockets of those who cannot moderate their greed.
Based on a Study of the World Bank as reported by the Food Agriculture Organization of United Nations, “in the Philippines only .02 percent is the growth of the agriculture in the Gross Domestic Product in the last decade.” Poverty is indeed worse in the rural areas which is even aggravated by the Climate Crisis as the ecological people are the victims of ecological degradation. According to the same Study, the rural people are the most affected by protracted war and violent extremism. As farming has become non-viable anymore, 3 out of 4 farmers have already left farming, going to the urban centers to work as janitors, drivers, waiters and what have you.
How about our indigenous peoples? Well, they have become “squatters” in their own native land as the ancestral land which their forefathers had occupied for hundreds of years are now converted into massive plantations. These are the “blessed lands” of our indigenous peoples and these are the choicest of land. According to a Study of the Development Academy of the Philippines, some 63% of Mindanao is now under the control of Trans-National Corporations (TNCs) and our IPs find themselves farming marginalized and highly steep mountainous areas. “Gamay lang nga tulod, ang kabaw moligid na.”
AGAW LUPA. AGAW TUBIG. AGAW BUHAY. That is now the order of the day in the life of the Indigenous Peoples in Mindanao. The hundreds of thousands of hectares of the Ancestral Domain have been land grabbed by powerful corporations in cohort with power-that-be and when the IP leaders would stand to resist, they are killed. In fact, in the last 5 years, some 63 IP leaders have been murdered including a lady Datu for fighting for the IP’s water rights. Fear is indeed being used as a means to control the mind and to abuse the rights of the Indigenous People. In all of those killings, no one has been arrested. Thus, the killings continue without let-up.
The “blessed lands” have ceased to be so because these lands, where plantations have loomed, reek with poisons, having been bombarded for several decades with multifarious toxic chemicals, 8 of which are already internationally banned (based on the examined samples of water, air and soil in Davao.) Certainly, these chemicals are carcinogenic, the reason why cancer has become a common disease of the Mindanawons.
As for our fisherfolk, they are the ones catching fish, yet their children are hungry as malnutrition is highest in the coastal communities. This is so because the grandeur of the Philippine bays is now fast disappearing as they undergo progressive state of impairment and with it, the marginalization of the coastal populace. Unlike before when fish would literally jump into their “banca,” fish now can hardly be caught.
Why? What are the fatal blows causing the death of the once mighty marine and fishery ecosystem? Well, the bays are treated as waste pits. First is industrial pollution. Chemical waste from industries and factories are dumped in the bays. Other silent killers are the internationally banned chemical fertilizers and insecticides which are heavily used in surrounding plantations.
These non-biodegradable, petroleum-based agricultural inputs are washed from the soil into rivers and into the sea, entering food chain and polluting the watersheds. I am very certain that these toxic chemicals are already in our water system, in the water that we drink or bath and water we use for cooking. Other countries have banned these chemicals, why are these being used by big plantations? Are we Filipinos guinea pigs? It is about time that we stop these plantations? For heavily using these toxic chemicals that have harmed the health of the people, some of these plantations are barred to operate in their own respective countries. That is the reason why they are operating (and expanding at that!) here in the Philippines particularly in Mindanao. What a tragedy ! Gumising na po tayo!
All told, the above-cited realities are some of the horrors of social injustices that have been rammed down the throats of our oppressed but struggling people. Apparently, the victims include the ecosystems that provide the life-support systems to our ecological people in defiance of the Constitutional Principle (Art.II, Sec. 16) that, “The State shall protect and advance the right of the people to a balanced and healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature.”
Unless we rectify such, there can be no genuine development. Only mal- development that sacrifices the people and the environment to the altar of greed and profit!
How can we rectify these social wrongs when these are hidden from us by the mainstream media which beholden to the financial support of the rich powerful. No way can the outpourings of lies and misinformation be stopped. There are those who were brave enough to fight for the truth but they were eliminated as some 187 journalists/broadcasters have been killed in the last five years for exposing the truth. Thus, we have been buried in the fallacies of life and religions. So, GISING
NA PO TAYO!
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