ALBAY, Philippines – Earning an average of P300 a day, farmers from Oas, Albay work tirelessly to make ends meet amid intense heat and the lingering effects of El Niño. Facing major challenges in meeting their families’ basic needs, many turn to loans with around 20% interest from local lenders.
Lorenzo Regelias has worked as a farm laborer since he was 16. Now 38 and supporting a family of six, he earns only P150 to P200 per day for grueling labor. He says his family’s daily expenses are around P100 more than his farming income, forcing him to seek additional jobs or borrow from relatives and lenders.
“Despite trying hard to trim down our daily expenses, we usually need to spend more than P300 per day to feed our four children,” Regelias said in a soft, hesitant tone.
Like Regelias, Expedito Reperesa, a tractor operator working at least nine hours daily to support his wife and three children, says his income of around P400 still falls short of meeting his family’s needs, especially for his children’s education.
“Most of the time, what we earn doesn’t really sufficiently fit our needs. We often run out of money, especially because of the growing needs of our family,” Reperesa said with a pained smile, trying to lighten the mood.
Case studies conducted by Kilusang Magbubukid ng Bikol (KMB), a regional chapter of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), show that many other farmers and fisherfolk share these struggles, earning between P150 to P500 during harvest seasons while battling inflation, especially in remote areas like San Juan, Oas, where basic goods are also costly.
San Juan is one of the largest rice-producing communities in Oas, with a large farming population facing low wages, according to local sources.
The KMB reports that rice farmers’ incomes are often cut when crops are damaged by pests or natural calamities.
Coconut farmers, who wait at least two months between harvests, typically earn less than P50 per day when accounting for days of production.
Meanwhile, rice farmers sell palay (unhusked rice grain) during the two harvest seasons from February to May and September to November, earning around P17.50 per kilo, according to Robas-Faustino store, a public market vendor in Oas since the early 1980s.
Joen Faustino, the store owner’s son, explained that the high supply during harvest leads to lower prices, forcing farmers to sell their palay at lower rates to avoid spoilage.
While selling palay at 17.50 per kilo, farmers often have to buy locally milled rice for P49 or more per kilo. Regelias said his family frequently has to ration one kilo of rice across all meals due to his limited income.
Regina Barbacena, a KMB regional council member, noted that this disparity in income and commodity prices drives farmers into debt and worsens poverty, particularly amid rising inflation in Bicol.
“There is a very wide gap between the income and the prices of goods in the region. While the normal family comprising of six members spends at least P550 for daily essential expenses such as food aside from other expenses like education, transportation, and electric bills,” Barbacena said.
Interventions
Many of the farmers interviewed do not own the lands they cultivate. They either work as daily wage laborers or lease fields, splitting their already limited earnings.
Reperesa, who has farmed for 20 years, shared the difficulties of farming on someone else’s land, saying it often requires extra effort to make enough for his family.
“Sometimes we don’t have work because we don’t have our land. That’s why I am not able to take money home to support my family. Help only sometimes reaches us, most of the times not at all,” he said.
In July, only 16 farmers from Libon and Oas received landholdings totaling 38 hectares across several barangays. The number pales compared to the many farmers facing land disputes and other agrarian challenges.
While the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) mandates the redistribution of private and public agricultural lands to aid small farmers, only a small fraction of struggling landless farmers have benefitted.
Many agrarian reform cases are pending in Albay, leaving farmers at the mercy of influential landowning families.
For instance, 52 farmers are still fighting for their rights over the 49-hectare Hacienda Peralta.
Similar struggles are seen in the 63-hectare Hacienda Beruenger in Gubat, Sorsogon.
In Naga City, Bicol Filipino Homes Land Property and other large agrarian estates have displaced hundreds of farmers and their families, while vast landholdings in Camarines Sur remain under the control of powerful families.
Silencing farmers, media
These struggles rarely make the news due to the political economy influencing regional media. A 2021 study by journalism graduates at Bicol University’s College of Arts and Letters found that agrarian issues receive less coverage, both locally and nationally.
“The effects of the media coverage about the law gives farmers validation of their personal experiences since it also feature farmers with similar concerns. The media can reinforce their convictions and the more they hear about it, the more they can relate,” the researchers wrote.
The more farmers’ concerns go unreported, the less informed the public becomes, further isolating the farmers, especially as they face corruption from landowners.
While some reports highlight CARL funding, these cases prove that most farmers are left powerless against influential landholders who control lands cultivated by farmers for generations.
KMB and other rights groups in the region are campaigning to increase the palay price to at least P20 per kilo, reduce commodity prices, and repeal the rice liberalization law that further marginalizes Bikolano farmers. – Rappler.com
Reinnard Balonzo is a senior journalism student at Bicol University-College of Arts and Letters. An Aries Rufo Journalism Fellow of Rappler for 2024, he is also chairperson of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines-Bicol.
