Correspondence Reports:
Cassava Plantation Project, A heavier burden to the peasant masses

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

The Cassava Plantation Project imposed by Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco in southwest Isabela has brought nothing but landlessness, hardship, widespread hunger and intense militarization. Under the project, small landholdings in Isabela have been transformed into a huge cassava plantation to be used by Cojuangco's various businesses.

In collusion with the Dy warlord-bureaucrat clan, Cojuangco grabbed 150,000 hectares in 11 towns of Isabela (Mallig, Quezon, Sta. Maria, Cabagan, Delfin Albano, Quirino, Sto. Tomas, Ilagan, Aurora, Gamu and Burgos) for his "cassava project". This is probably the biggest landgrabbing case in the history of the puppet republic. Immediately, Cojuangco plans to expand this to 250,000 hectares. In the near future, the plantation will likely extend to up to a million hectares. Presently, it has a contract with farmers and the local government of Quirino and Cagayan for the planting of cassava.

More than 100,000 peasants will be affected by the project in Isabela alone. More than 30,000 peasants will immediately lose their lands. Most of them have been tilling so-called "idle public lands" for decades. Cojuangco has grabbed these landholdings wholescale. In Mallig, he even expropriated an 817-hectare relocation area set aside in 1991 for more than 100 families victimized by the Pinatubo explosion.

Corporative scheme. In order for Cojuangco to fully control all these lands, the Department of Agrarian Reform placed all 250,000 hectares of it under the "corporative scheme". Under the scheme, a bogus cooperative, the Valley Planters Development Corporation, was formed to subsume all land claimants and owners to the project. On paper, it would appear that the individual farmers still owned their lands but in reality, they have been forced by the San Miguel Corporation Cassava Plantation Project (SMCCPP) to cede their individual rights to the land in exchange for membership in VAPDECO. In exchange, they will receive worthless shares from VAPDECO. Only VAPDECO will be allowed to transact business with SMCCPP.

Although in essence a private venture, loans for the peasants will come from the government through the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP). These debts will be paid with an exorbitantly high interest rate of 36% per cropping. The LBP will automatically deduct the amount of the debts incurred by the farmers from the payments given by the SMCCPP to VAPDECO. Only the remainder will be divided among the peasant members of VAPDECO.

The only crop allowed in the land area covered is cassava. SMCCPP will serve as the sole market for the entire cassava harvest. SMC will process the cassava into flour and ingredients for beer and ice cream production as well as chicken feed, hog mash and fish meal intended mainly for export. It will construct four flour mills and feed mills in Isabela for the project. The construction of infrastructure such as roads and irrigation systems has been left to the local government units.

Huge expenditures. SMCCPP's promises that the peasants will earn huge incomes have been proven false. The project has instead buried them deep in debt due to heavy production expenses. The claimed minimum P26,000 net income per farmer for every hectare planted to cassava is a far cry from reality.

On top of this, a big percentage of the harvest has been ruined in many areas due to drought and delayed harvests. Only into its first year, the project has already burdened the farmers with huge debts.

In the town of Luna and in Santiago City, peasant borrowings from the LBP have exceeded P1 million. These are exacerbated by the very high interest rates. Not a single centavo was spent to meet the needs of the farmers and their families.

The peasants were further burdened when the Land Bank refused to release funds for the wages of additional farm workers hired to help harvest the cassava. The Land Bank has yet to release up to P57,000 in wage funds. Thus, more than a third of the harvest rotted underground.

Intensifying militarization. To suppress the people's opposition to the cassava project, Cojuangco and his cohorts use the reactionary military and police in the region to sow terror and fear. The local peasant associaton has already recorded 11 cases of grave threats perpetrated by the military and police.

Two battalions guard the project and military camps have been set up in Delfin Albano, Mallig and Santiago City. Another camp has been set up in Sta. Isabel, Ilagan. Martial rule virtually prevails in southwestern Isabela. A curfew has been imposed and checkpoints put up. Peasants have no right whatsoever to assemble. Anyone who dares express his opposition is placed under surveillance, intimidated and threatened.

Nonetheless, the peasants in the area are determined to intensify their protest against the landgrabbing of Cojuangco and his cronies. The people of the area have long been opposed to the project. They are ever ready to face police and military repression.

07 April 2003
English Edition

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