Better to work together

When CARP was introduced Marsman Estate Plantation Inc. (MEPI) donated some 800 hectares for distribution to Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARB’s) to support the ideal of CARP. President Arroyo approved the deal in 2002 and praised them for their generosity. MEPI leased back the land as a condition of the donation in the expectation of a reasonable return to get the cost back over the next 30 years — the life of the contract. Some of the land remained with MEPI because it had communal services on it, an airfield, office buildings, roads, canals, warehouses, packing plants, etc. that all the farmers could share.

Yet a minority group of 301 of the 760 Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARB’s) was influenced  by discredited (left wing) ideology to cancel that contract and revert to individual ownership. They said it was to return ownership of the land to the farmers — but the farmers still own the land, they only leased it to MEPI. In return they’re deriving employment income of P690 per day compared to the national average for non-ARB farmers of P181. If the farmers did go independent apart from reducing farmer incomes it would put the farms at great risk. Panama disease is a viral attack that can only be controlled by strict quarantine and the high discipline a corporate farm can maintain that a small plot can’t. Their banana plant are at risk of being lost totally, and no money being earned.

Let me take the numbers further. The average Filipino farmer in the Davao Region earns P104,855 per year in total for his family. From that he must pay for food for his family, schooling for his kids, electricity for home, and expenses to support his farm. Then there’s the, likely, health and birth expenses. At the end of the year, he’s left with nothing, probably in debt.

The MEPI beneficiaries, on the other hand, are paid annual salaries and benefits of P222,000 (for a rank-and-file employee). That already is more than double what the average farmer gets. On top of that, he/she gets up to P130,000 annually in land rental, dividends and savings from the foregone land amortization that was supposed to be paid to the Land Bank, but which they now get to keep because the farm was already donated to them by MEPI.  

To promise them greater riches if acting alone denies all economic and commercial reality. They would lose their market. Assuming they could even continue with the current efficiencies, who would they sell to? And even if they could find such people they’d have no guarantee of continuance of purchase, as they now have with MEPI whose supply contracts are long term.

If the minority of 301 did breakaway it would throw some 760 other farmers and some 1,100 associated workers out of a job as MEPI would have to close operations. The land of the 301 is not contiguous, but scattered throughout the plantation. So running an organized farm would no longer be possible.

And if the contract is cancelled the land reverts to MEPI, not the farmers. That would need the application of the agrarian reform law and that law has expired. So it becomes not only a commercial mess, but also a legal one. And if a break-up occurs it’s chaotic. Who has access to private roads, who doesn’t. What happens to the contracts with buyers? MEPI can’t commit supply from people who’ve gone their own way.

MEPI has long term contracts with buyers in Japan, the Middle East and China. Those contracts would be violated, and MEPI face cancellation penalties. Those buyers would not go to individual farmers to buy, they’d go to Vietnam or Ecuador. And if the contracts with Lapanday are also cancelled the Philippines goes from being the number 2 exporter of the world to a pariah. No one will buy. Other crops will suffer too as buyers will not come to a country where contracts are not honored.

Bananas are the biggest export crop for the island, by far. To put them at risk is foolhardy.

The President wants to develop Mindanao, and as some of the poorest regions in the country it sure needs it. But it won’t happen if farmers can’t work together for the common good. And it won’t develop if contracts aren’t honored by the government.

I urge the 301 to listen to wiser heads. They have a guaranteed good income where they are well looked after. If would not make much sense to risk it.. > > TOP