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Reports from Correspondents:
More than 11,000 farmers benefit from agrarian revolution in Northeast Mindanao
Agrarian revolution benefited up to 11,343 farmers from April 2001 to April 2002 in various guerrilla zones in the Northeastern Mindanao region. By waging continuous struggles, the peasants were able to raise the wages of farm workers and farm gate prices for their produce, reduce land rent and usury and assert their right to till. According to Lingkawas, the revolutionary mass paper in the region, 23 campaigns of various types and various durations were launched in more than 60 barrios in a span of one year.
Following are some of the actions successfully waged by the mass organizations:
- The daily wage for all types of farm work was raised from P70 to P80 per day, with breakfast and lunch provided for free, in Las Nieves, Agusan del Norte. More than 200 families benefited. Five nearby barrios were also influenced by the struggle. Wages were likewise raised in San Agustin and Tandag in Surigao del Sur and Butuan City in Agusan del Norte.
- Calamansi fruit pickers gained a wage hike, from P30 to P40 per netbag, in Bayugan and Sibagat, both in Agusan del Sur.
- The price of lakatan was raised from P2.50 to P5.00 per kilo; and latundan from P2.00 to P4.50 per kilo, in two barrios of Lianga, Surigao del Sur. Carrying morado, a type of banana that used to have no commercial value, is now worth P5.00 per bundak (equivalent to one to two small bunches of banana).
- In Agusan del Norte, four merchants refused to raise latundan prices to P9-9.50 per bundak. But when they saw that the farmers were ready to sell their produce to other merchants and to strengthen their cooperative, the merchants were forced to buy the bananas at the price set by the farmers.
- Villagers in five barrios of Bayugan prevented their lands from being seized and used as a palm tree plantation.
- In Agusan del Norte, there are initial gains in changing the system of land rent in favor of the tenants.
- A legal struggle was waged in five towns in Surigao del Sur to raise the price of abaca. Vice Gov. Lib Navarro thwarted the move. Despite this, the abaca farmers, like the peasants in Agusan del Norte, looked for alternative buyers along with strengthening their cooperative.
To improve production and the people�s livelihood, various forms of cooperation among the masses continue to be developed. From time to time, the "balik-sakahan" (return to the farm) campaign is advanced in areas where peasants were displaced by hamletting and AFP military operations in the 1980s and 1990s.
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 July 2002
English Edition
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Ang Bayan is the official news organ of the Communist Party of the Philippines issued by the CPP Central Committee. It provides news about the work of the Party as well as its analysis of and standpoint on current issues.
AB comes out fortnightly. It is published originally in Pilipino and translated into Bisaya, Ilokano, Waray, Hiligaynon and English.
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