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In the face of the continuous decline of the coconut market and industry in the country and in the whole world, coconut farmers continue to sink to the depths of poverty. In spite of this, the Macapagal-Arroyo regime has done nothing to look after their welfare. The following article describes the miserable state of coconut farmers in Bicol. Landlord monopoly of coconut lands.There are around 2.5 million families (3.4 million farmers and farmworkers and their 16.6 million children) in the entire country dependent on coconut production for a living. Only 20% or 500,000 of these families have their own coconut farms. Meanwhile, only 50,000 families own 80% of all coconut farms in the country. Because a large majority of coconut farmers still do not have their own land from which they could eke out a living, they are perpetual victims of brutal feudal and semifeudal exploitation, and are forced to live lives of abject poverty and backwardness. In Bicol, 663,443 hectares or 37% of the entire region are planted to coconut. The 1,226.2 hectares "distributed" since 1987 under the pro-landlord Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law do not even constitute 0.2% of coconut lands in Bicol. Because land control and ownership remain monopolized by landlords, the latter are able to dictate how the proceeds from coconut production are shared. The most common type of sharing are 60%-40% and tersyuhan (2/3-1/3). In both types, it is the landlord who rakes in the bigger share. In most coconut farms, it is the peasants who shoulder production costs such as wages for farmworkers and rent for carabaos. Thus, most of the 300,000 coconut farmers and farmworkers in Bicol remain poor. On the other hand, landlords, the comprador bourgeoisie and foreigners who invest in copra production and other coconut products rake in massive profits. Declining maket and price of coconut products.The world market for coconut products has long been shrinking. The main reason for this is the growing competition posed by other vegetable oils. Palm oil and palm kernel oil are the primary competitors of coconut oil. Even the Macapagal-Arroyo government plans to implement a program for the commercial planting of palm trees by businessmen from Malaysia and Brunei on 100,000 hectares of land in the Philippines. This program will only accelerate the decline of the country's coconut industry. Due to the contraction of the world market for coconut products, the price of coconut products are always on the low. It would be good if the price per kilo of copra reaches P6.00. In 1996, it only went up to an average of P3.50 per kilo. At present, it is pegged at merely P4.50-P5.50. Even middle and rich peasants are victims of the depleted price of copra. Aside from the fact that copra prices have slumped due to a shrinking market, the price of copra is further reduced by 15-25% to allow for resiko (redrying in order to remove the remaining moisture in copra) The actual price reduction is arbitrarily set by copra traders. In about 1.5 hectares of coconut farmland, a poor tenant farmer is usually able to harvest 2,400 pieces of coconut every 45 days. This yields 600 kilos of copra. With each kilo pegged at P5.50, a peasant's gross income would amount to P3,300. If 15% or P495 is deducted for resiko, the balance to be divided between the farmer and landlord would be P2,805. Under the tersyuhan system based on gross earnings, the landlord rakes in P1,870. From the P935 left for the farmer, he still has to deduct production costs. Even without deducting any amount from his share, the farmer's average daily disposable income until the next gusi (harvest time) would merely be P20.78, only 5.4% of the estimated P382.63 daily cost of living outside Metro Manila. In order to earn more, the peasant is obliged to work as a farmworker or look for other means of livelihood. Slave wagers for coconut farmworkers. Coconut farmers' wages are pegged at very low rates. With the fall of copra prices, farmworkers' wages also fell. On a piece-based wage system, farmworkers are paid 30 centavos for picking, 10 centavos for gathering and 15 centavos for husking. A landlord or rich peasant usually pays a farmworker 60 centavos per piece for the entire process - from picking to gathering the copra in sacks. If a farmworker is able to engage in the entire process per gusi for 2,400 pieces of coconut, for example, he earns P1,440. From this, the farmworker would have an average of P32 daily to feed and support his family. Widespread land conversion and dislocation. In April, the official unemployment rate in Bicol stood at 11.7%. This is set to worsen in the face of the rampant cutting of coconut trees and land conversion. Despite RA 8048 or the Coconut Preservation Act of 1995, which supposedly forbids the cutting of productive coconut trees, millions of trees are cut each year for coco lumber, and due to land conversion and other reasons. Around 1.315 million hectares or 74.62% of the entire Bicol region is set to be converted and transformed into mines, factories, commercial plantations and other agribusinesses, commercial complexes, golf courses, resorts or "development projects".
Coconut farmers bear a mounting load of problems. With the continuing decline of the coconut industry, there is worsening poverty among the people whose lives depend on it. The regime remains blind and deaf to their plight. The problems of the coconut industry can be resolved only through a strategic, radical expansion and transformation in agriculture and of the entire political economy in coconut lands. In this process, antifeudal and other mass struggles focused on each of the specified problems must be launched in order for the mass of coconut farmers to attain immediate relief from abject poverty. 
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