Farmers’ Progress – What People Power (Edsa 1986) Did Not Liberate Us From – Limited Thinking About Farmer Prosperity

I was afraid to go to Edsa and join untold numbers to say by their very presence, “Goodbye, President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos, we don’t love you anymore!” I thought it was unsafe.

(Edsa image stuartexchange.org)

But I kept listening to the radio, and on Thursday, when I thought the tide was turning in favor of Mr Marcos, I decided to and did go Friday, 25 February, walking from Guadalupe Bridge to the government station Channel 4 where they were inviting people to speak out.

Already a much-accomplished and known Writer and Editor in Agriculture and Forestry, and with firsthand and second-hand knowledge of how loggers have been cutting down trees beyond our forests’ natural power to replenish themselves, depriving future generations of heritage species and spaces – I did not volunteer to speak out. I had been a rebel in writing, but hardly in speaking.

So, People Power overthrew the Marcos Dictatorship – that was all. After 36 years, 26 Feb 1986-26 Feb 2022, poor farmers are still poor. We have failed our own farmers!

The son of a not-poor-not-rich farmer and an Agriculturist (UP '65), I always have had the agrarian welfare in mind. And so, as since 1975 a self-styled one-man band communicator for village development – writer, editor, layout artist, desktop publisher, blogger – I must blame my lack of imagination for not having contributed to the liberation of the Filipino farmer from poverty.

Looking at the agrarian situations before and after People Power, I see that they are exactly the same:

Post-Edsa, we have not emancipated the tillers of the soil from the slavery of “Land Tenure” – The self-limiting creed that each farmer must have the title to the piece of land he is tilling in order to prosper.
(“Bloom” image from me.me)

Thank God, on Tuesday, 06 Aug 2019, from a poor family in Ilocos Sur William Dar was appointed as Secretary of Agriculture. Before that, he presented in his Manila Times column of 13 Jun 2019, “The ‘New Thinking’ For Agriculture” (manilatimes.net). The way I see it, Mr Dar purposely excluded land tenure and instead included farm consolidation, farmers’ groupings, cooperatives – and agri-entrepreneurship. As Philippine history has shown since People Power, our farmers remain enslaved by their limited business-mindedness. We have failed them!

For the good of the farmers, in the manner of The Ten Commandments as it were, The New Thinking included The Eight Paradigms:

I have conceptualized eight paradigms to level up the country’s agriculture sector: modernization must continue; industrialization of agriculture is key; promotion of exports is a necessity; consolidation of small- and medium-sized farms; roadmap development would be crucial; infrastructure development would be critical; higher budget and investment for Philippine agriculture (are required); and legislative support is needed.

I say the behavior of farmers and their leaders will be in tune with the Spirit of Edsa 1986 when they abandon their old thinking of land ownership as a prerequisite for promotion to prosperity. Otherwise, we pity them because they themselves are only deceiving themselves!@517