Commercial plantations are relentlessly expanding under the US-Marcos regime, grabbing land and livelihoods from farmers, farmworkers, and indigenous peoples nationwide.

On August 3, the Department of Agriculture (DA) announced the creation of a Joint Memorandum Circular involving 38 national government agencies to hasten the approval of so-called strategic investments in the agriculture and fisheries sector. The DA focuses on increasing the export of high-value products such as palm oil, bananas, pineapples, cacao, coffee, bamboo, rubber, and others, as well as expanding land available for corporate plantations through “industry road maps” or production development plans.

After Marcos signed the new law that allows 99-year land leases to foreign corporations, the number of plantations to be established in the country is bound to increase. The problem of food insecurity will worsen since the share of land allotted for rice, vegetables, and other local food production continues to further shrink, on top of widespread land-use conversions for real estate and large-scale pro-foreign infrastructure.

Farmers and indigenous peoples are being aggressively dispossessed of their farmlands. Many are driven into remote areas and forced to seek various odd jobs. Others become contractual laborers by corporations that seized their land. Plantation workers are among those with the lowest wages.

Expansion of plantations

The Philippines ranks as the world’s third-largest banana exporter. Banana plantations in the country cover a total of 450,000 hectares. The largest belongs to Dole Philippines, with a 20,000-hectare plantation in Davao and Bukidnon. It plans to expand by an additional 12,000 hectares in the coming period. Other major plantations are Tagum Agricultural Development Company in Panabo, Davao City, Sumifru Corp., Lapanday Foods Corp., and Unifrutti Tropical Philippines. In Davao, site of the majority of plantations, the average daily wage of farmworkers is ₱476.

In July, Phividec announced that it would lease to Del Monte Phil. Inc. (DMPI) 226.4 hectares of land within the special economic zone in Misamis Oriental, which is classified for industrial use. The land will be converted to pineapple and papaya plantations. The DMPI already operates a 30,000-hectare pineapple plantation in Bukidnon and Misamis Oriental, considered the largest plantation in the world. Despite the company’s enormous profits, workers in the plantation earn only ₱461 per day.

Up to 1,000 families will be displaced, and 1,000 farmers will lose their livelihood because of the 6,000-hectare oil palm plantation being built by Consunji and Hacienda Asia Plantations Inc. in Candoni, Negros Occidental. The minimum daily wage for farmworkers in the plantation is ₱488. Based on 2022 state data, oil palm plantations in the country already covered 63,380.85 hectares, and the DA plans to expand this to 117,212 hectares by 2033.

Also set for expansion are commercial coffee and cacao plantations in SOCCSKSARGEN, Davao, and BARMM; and of mango in Pangasinan, Isabela, Pampanga, Cebu City, and Zamboanga City.

Foreign corporations owning plantations in the Philippines amass billions of dollars in profit disregarding its concomitant massive environmental destruction. The widespread and unrestrained use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers poisons the soil and water resources, causing severe illnesses among farmworkers and their families.

Once abandoned, plantation lands are no longer arable due to decades of chemical pesticide and fertilizer use. Decades are needed before such lands become fertile or regain their previous productivity.