Central Cordillera Agricultural Program:
Exploitation under the guise of "development aid"

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

The Central Cordillera Agricultural Program or CECAP is a deceptive and exploitative "development program" from the European Union. This programme further fetters the people of Cordillera to poverty contrary to its declared goal of improving their lot.

CECAP is part of the European Union�s (EU) grand design to promote its economic and political interest in the country. The Macapagal-Arroyo regime has yet to take action to stop the operation of such anti-people programs. The program is under the joint supervision of the Delegation of the EU in the country and the Department of Agriculture.

CECAP was first implemented during the Aquino regime, continued under the Ramos and Estrada regimes and persists up to the present administration. Funds borrowed from the IMF-World Bank were used for the program with the Aquino regime spending P32 million and the Ramos regime, P148.5 million.

Like other imperialist programs in the country, CECAP is part of the reactionary government�s counterrevolutionary program. It is being implemented as a psywar tool against the masses and to counter revolutionary propaganda. Such programs aim to douse with cold water the people�s burning desire to carry out radical economic change. CECAP�s scope of operation includes Abra, Ifugao, Kalinga and Mountain Province.

Intensification of semifeudal exploitation

CECAP aims to promote and develop commercial agriculture in Cordillera communities. It further shackles Cordillera�s traditional agriculture to a cash-based and unsustainable economy. CECAP intends to replace local plant varieties and turn the Cordillera into a dumping ground for fertilizers and pesticides produced by imperialist European companies.

Traditional rice varieties are being replaced with highyielding varieties. Aside from this, large-scale conversion of farmlands to commercial vegetable and fruit farms is being carried out, reducing local rice production.

The Cordillera was also used to test new potato varieties from Ireland and Germany to spare Europe from possible harmful results. The tests that were carried out caused the spread of plant diseases and pests in Benguet, Ifugao and Mountain Province, resulting in the devastation of local farms and the bankruptcy of farmers.

CECAP is setting up a rural financial system, a network of farm production groups and a marketing network composed of local middlemen and selected cooperatives.

Cooperatives being established by CECAP in the barrios are subsumed under municipal and provincial mother cooperatives. Existing village cooperatives are encouraged to become part of CECAP mother cooperatives. As an incentive, CECAP extends credit to both existing cooperatives and those being established under its auspices. Cooperatives under CECAP are required to buy products only from CECAP mother cooperatives, at prices dictated by CECAP.

CECAP also organizes savings and loan groups (SLG) composed of five to 10 members. It is with these SLGs integrated into CECAP cooperatives in the barrios where their members� contributions are deposited and where they could avail of credit. Cordillerans are lured into the SLGs by the availability of credit limits that are twice the amount of their deposits.

Members of these groups pay a compulsory P50 fee and a regular weekly deposit of P5-20. When a member avails of credit, 15% is automatically deducted to cover annual interest, a service fee and an emergency fund contribution. In actuality, borrowers pay an interest of 30% because half of the amount that they borrow comes from money that they had previously deposited. In addition, those who are unable to make amortization payments on time are slapped a fine of 2% monthly. Loans should be paid within 50 weeks, with the borrowers� harvests serving as collateral.

When an SLG is dissolved, the members� total deposits as well as the "emergency fund" are appropriated by CECAP and the cooperative.

To ensure profit, an entire SLG is deemed responsible for loans to individual members. When a member is three months past due with his payments, his debt is credited to his SLG�s emergency trust fund. If the debt exceeds the latter, it is credited to the group�s total deposits, causing conflict among members.

Aside from SLGs, production groups were also formed. Members of this group were conditioned to plant cash crops dependent on fertilizers and pesticides introduced by CECAP.

Rampant corruption

Among the principal sources of corruption in CECAP is the hefty commissions its administrators receive from the sale of commercial fertilizers and pesticides in the communities along with the entry of new crop varieties. Another is the sizeable profit obtained from supplying goods to cooperatives they control through the mother cooperatives. CECAP introduces livestock raising projects which require its technical assistance. Although such assistance is subsidized, those who avail of it are nonetheless obliged to pay a fee because administrators pocket the funds allocated for this purpose.

CECAP�s infrastructure projects like foot bridges and farm-to-market roads, loading platforms, trading stations and roadside baggage decks are likewise corruption-ridden. Despite the big budgets allocated for such projects, people employed in the hauling of materials to mountainous areas and in the construction projects receive no pay. In their financial reports, however, CECAP administrators include alleged wage payments to workers.

Cases where CECAP administrators pilfer construction materials and take kickbacks from their purchase are rampant. For instance, cement prices are marked up by P30 per bag in what hardware store owners call "CECAP pricing", a scheme that rakes in thrice the amount compared to the P10-per-bag markup dubbed "DPWH pricing". A number of bureaucrats benefit from raking in funds earmarked for CECAP projects through connivance and manipulation.

Fight CECAP and similar programs!

Deception, more intensified semifeudal exploitation, the destruction of the balanced and sustainable agriculture practiced by the Cordillera people and corruption perpetrated by administrators are mainly what Cordillera farmers can expect from CECAP.

To effectively fight the deceit and trickery being perpetrated by CECAP and such other programs as the Cordillera Highland Agricultural Resource Management (CHARM) and the Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (CIDSS), it is imperative for the Cordillera people to strengthen their unity and raise the level of their militancy.

The people of concerned areas in the Cordillera must continue and broaden their current struggle against these programs. They must expose the connivance between the proponents of these programs and the big comprador burgeoisie and the reactionary government. The corruption in CECAP�s operations and the health and environmental hazards caused by the fertilizers and pesticides introduced by these programs should likewise be exposed.

Anti-people programs like CECAP will keep on cropping up as long as the rotten ruling system exists. Only through the institution of fundamental economic and political change through the democratic people�s revolution can the chains that fetter the people to oppression and exploitation be broken.

April 2001
English Edition

	Editorial: Under the Macapagal-Arroyo regime: Prepare for bigger battles, achieve greater victories!!
	Under the Macapagal-Arroyo regime: The national economy continues to decline
	Under the Macapagal-Arroyo regime: Conflict and compromise within the ruling class
	Under the Macapagal-Arroyo regime: Estrada�s arrest is warmly welcomed by the people Statement by Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal National Spokesperson Communist Party of the Philippines April 26, 2001
	Under the Macapagal-Arroyo regime: The fascist state continues on a rampage
	Central Cordillera Agricultural Program: Exploitation under the guise of "development aid"
	Maj. Noel Buan: NPA frees prisoner of war
	News of struggle