LMC 23 DOLEFIL: COMMUNITY AFFAIRS by Dominador H. Zaragoza, Jr. under the supervision of Eduardo A. Morato’, Jr "The question is, are we really and truly helping the people of South Cotabato province and the municipality of Polomolok, as we should...the way we should?" mused Caloy Baldostamon, the new superintendent of Dole Philippines, Incorporated or Dolefil’s community affairs department, as he leafed through the five-year brief of his department's accomplishments. "What substantial changes can we see in the community? Yes, we see school buildings, a hospital, portions of roads here and there, employed and economically satisfied people, and.a lol of other visible signs of progress..but are these all?” Dolefil was a big multinational company that established a 12,000 hectare pineapple lantation and a cannery in the municipality of Polomolok, South Cotabato in 1963, by Feasing lands from the National Development Corporation (NDC) and forging management contracts with some local farmers on their respective lands. ‘Through the years the company has been involved in helping the community by giving donations, in the form of money and materials, and initiating or implementing some income generating and development projects. This vas in keeping with the company’s policy of providing humanitarian services in regions all over the world where Dolefi operated. In the beginning, there was no particular departmeint that was exclusively tasked with comimunity development. The community affairs department came into being only in the early 1980's. Caloy observed that the company was now giving high priority to community development work and it was important that his department performed effectively. South Cotabato South Cotabato was situated at the southern tip of Mindanao, the southernmost island of the Philippines. Its land area of 7,901.78 square kilometers was bounded in the north and west by the province of Sultan Kudarat, in the east by Davao del Sur, and in the south by the Celébes Sea. It was composed of 18 municipalities and one city and had a total population of 985,674 people. Before the massive exodus of settlers arrived in Mindanao in 1939, South Cotabato was sparsely inhabited by the Muslims, B’laans, Manobos, Tagabilis, T’Bolis and other ethnic groups. After South Cotabato was opened to the settlers, the Christians from all over the country, especially from the Visayas and Central Luzon, began to predominate. ‘On July, 1968 South Cotabato became a regular province with an initial 11 municipalities ‘The province was generally known for its fertile lands and fair weather and climate. Rainfall was more or less distributed throughout the year, The months of March to June were considered the hottest, while December and January were the coolest. No storms or typhoons have been reported in South Cotabato,Qype et Liheay. Yok, Com, Agriculture was the province’ 's main industry, with the farmers planting mostly rice and corm. Recently, large processing plants began to sprout in the province, such as Purefoods Corporation and Santa Monica Canning Corporation located in General Santos City, Dole Philippines and San Migu el Hybrid Seed Plant in Polomolok, and the Pioncer Seed Plant in General Santos City, and others. ‘The Municipality of Polomolok Polomolok was a first class mi unicipality 14 kilometers north of General Santos City. It consisted of 21 barangays, and a land area of around 33,997 hectares, one third of which as planted to pineapple by Dole Fi annual report income of P 5,429,601.45. Of the tot: 25,358 of school age. Forty-two thousané ippines. The 1987 records from the local government jowed that the municipality had a total population of 78,424 and an annual population, some 13,332 were of pre-school ag, six hundred thirteen belonged to the labor force, and 518 were not yet in the labor force. Some 31,960 were employed while 10,653 re- mained unemployed. ‘The agricultural workers numbered 19,176, and the non-agricultural workers were 12,784, Of the total 33,997 hectares of land, 24,121 hectares were cultivated, 1,020 hectares were forest land; 340 pastureland; 6,799 residential; and 170 hectares were commercial and industrial lands.’ The roads and othe t utilities occupied the rest. Polomolok was 800 feet above sea level and at the base of a cone shaped volcano named Mt, Matutum. Its soil was sandy loam. Before it was inhabited by the settlers, Polomolok was considered a rich hunting ground, which was the reason why it got its name Polomolok, which to the B'laans meant “hunting grounds.” When Polomolok became a municipality (sixth class) in 1957, it had a budget of only P 19,000 a year. Dole Philippines Incorporated In 1901 Jim Dole founded the Dole Corpora the New York Stock Fechange, The ion and registered it in that name at company carried a broad line of canned products: tomato (Oakland, California); fruits and vegetables, fruit cocktails, peaches, pears, arti- choke hearts, carrot juice (San Jose, California); canned string beans, plums, cherries and Peats (Salem, Oregon); etcetera...It also bad piseapple plantations and a cannery in fonolulu, Hawaii, In 1960 Dole Corporation became a subsidiary of Castle and Cooke after the C&C made its successful bid for 52% of the publicly held Dole stock. The name was later changed to Dole Packaged Foods Co. In 1962 the officials of Dole in Honolulu, Hawaii, came to the Philippines and negotiated with the National Development Corporation, which owned large tracts of land, ant the Polomolok farmers, so that 1 20,000 acres of land for planting pine: ie company would be able to lease and manage some apple. They succeeded. Ninety percent of the total Dolefil plantation area was leased from NDC, and 10% contracted with the farmers for about F460 per hectare per year, Iu addition to this, the company promised to hire the id farmers’ chil iren as regular workers in Dolefil.Caloy observed that the rich sandy loam soil in Polomolok near the base of Mt. Matutum volcano was best suited for a pineapple plantation. Another incentive for Dole’s locating in the country was the cheap labor cost in the Philippines relative to Hawaii and many parts of the world. In the farm management contract entered into by Dole Philippines witha landowner in 1976 the following provisions could be summarized: 1. The landowner appointed Dolefilas exclusive manager, administrator and representative to develop, cultivate, improve, plan, administer and manage all and any agricultural projects on the farm. 2. Constituted the manager as his true and lawful attorney-in-fact. 3. Guaranteed the manager and employees the right to enter and remain in the managed land for the duration of the contract. 4 Gave him the sole prerogative of appointing and discharging from service all farm personnel, laborers, employees and officers. 5. Agreed that the farm would bear all costs of production. 6. The owner would pay the manager a fee as compensation for services...equal to that portion of the net earnings of the farm over and above, the share of the net earnings due the owner. 7 ‘The owner shall be entitled to and guaranteed a minimum return of P 460.00 per hectare per year and a production premium of P 1.00 per ton of pineapple harvest- ed from the farm. ‘ 8 The term of the contract would be for ten (10) years renewable at the option of the manager for another period of ten years under the same condition of the contract. 9. The manager agreed to relieve the owner from liability...incurred ...due to the contract, acts and decisions of the manager...real estate taxes on land would be for the direct account of the owner. 10. The manager could convey or transfer the rights...to another person or entity...under certain conditions. In December 1963, Dolefil started planting pineapple, constructing a wharf at nearby Calumpang, and building the cannery structures about four kilometers from the town proper. The pineapples bore fruit ripe enough for harvest two years later. On July 1965 Dolefil harvested, packaged and shipped around 29,400 cases of canned pineapple to Newark, New Jersey. In 1966 Dolefil, through its sister company, STANFILCO, tried growing bananas for exports. It subcontracted neighboring farmers to plant and supply the company with export quality bananas, The individual farmers who managed their own farms were assisted technologically by Stanfilco which bought all export quality products from them. Stanfilcoalso maintained its own farms which served as model for the other producers, Based in General Santos City, the banana industry expanded to Davao in 1969. At about this time the can making factory of Dolefil was already producing more than a million cans a day. In 1976 Dolefil added a new product line - boxes. These were used by both Dolefil and Stanfilco for their operations. Dolefil also got into tuna fish export. It bought the General Santos fishermen’s catch and exported them to Japan and other countries. A. Present Operations As of 1988, Dolefil had a production volume ranging from 70 to 110 tons of fruits per hour, depending on the season and demand for the products. These were processed in two shifts by a total of 8,310 employees. Dole Philippines Inc. was managed by the vice president and general manager S.C. Bacani, a Filipino, assisted by the manufacturing manager C. Ball who supervised three divisions: cannery, operations and engineering services. Each of these divisions had its respective manager or director. The other divisions (with their heads reporting directly to the general manager) were the agricultural operations division, industry affairs division, industrial relations division, Philippine marketing division, and seafoods development division. Under these eight divisions were thirteen departments with their managers. Under the supervision of these managers were 28 superintendents, 105 foremen, 307 supervisors, 283 non-bargaining officers and technical workers, 176 bargaining “capataces", and 355 bargaining office and technical workers. All these 1,280 people were "salaried employees” who received their wages on a monthly basis. The otuer employees were the "hourlies* who were subdivided into the industrial hourlies and the agricultural hourlies. Of the 3,896 industrial hourlies, only 34 were non-bargaining. ‘The agricultural hourlies had 3,016 bargaining members and 123, non-bargaining hourlies, or a total of 3,139. B, Production and Manufacturing Processes ‘The process started in the farms with the preparation, planting and maintenance of the fields and the pineapple crops. These were usually done by th agricultural houties. Ordinarily the fields and plants were maintained by the regular agricultural hourly workers. During peak seasons, from March to July, the harvests and field operations were accelerated, and more people were needed. During these times the company hired extra help, the casuals, About 500 to 600 of these temporary workers would be on the job for at most six months. ‘Then they were laid off. Next season, another group would be hired. Other than the casuals there were the so called “guerrilla units" (to management) or “nagdao” (tothe employees), These were the groups gathered by individual contractors who were tasked to harvest pineapples that were left in the fields and those that were in the fields that were about to be *knocked down" by the company to prepare for the next plant- ing. These could not be serviced by the regulars or casuals. The hagdaos were being paid the tons harvested, and the company dealt only with the contractors who took care of distributing the income among their members. It usually took two years for the select Hawaiian pineapple variety to be harvested, and another year for it to bear its second or ratoon fruit, After the second harvest, the pineapple plants were uprooted and made to rot in the fields and later harrowed to prepare for the new plantation. Then a new cycle began.After the harvest, the fruits were carefully loaded on the fruit trucks, mostly owned by private truckers, and delivered to the accumulator in the cannery site. Here they were graded, washed, and conveyed by water to the cannery where they were peeled an trimmed, Peeling was done by a machine which cut the butts and crown ends, removed the skin and decored (where the peelings were separated from the pulps in one stroke), From the machine, the fruits, which became cylindrically shaped, slid to the trimming table where the workers, mostly girls, removed the fruits’ imperfections. From there the trimmed oylinders proceeded to the slicer where they were graded, sorted and packed in cans. ‘The packed pineapples proceeded to the processing line where measured juice or syrup was added. ‘The cans were then sealed, cooked and finally stored. Having passed through a series of inspections, the canned products were labeled and cased. The van trailers then delivered the products to the wharf for shipment to the U.S., Europe, Far East and the Middle East. ‘The People of Polomolok "The people of Polomolok are a combination," Vice Mayor Boy Ramo said. "Here we have Cebuanos, llonggos, Tagalogs, Warays, you name them, we have them." The tribes belonging to the cultural minorities were the B’laans and the Muslims. ‘These, according to the vice mayor, were very few, and lived in certain barangays. Around 100 B'laans and 400 Muslims worked with Dolefil and were mostly in the agricultural sectors. The B'laans ‘could be found in the uplands of barangays Lambdan, Palkan and Kinilis toiling on the lands either as owners Or tenants. The Muslims were in barangays Sumbakil, Bentung and Rubber. Most of these people, Ramo said, have already assimilated the culture of Christians and have intermingled with the Polomolok community. One could hardly tell the B'laans, Muslims and Christians apart until they started to talk, or unless they wore their tribal costumes. ‘The different groups that often interacted with Dolefil were the provincial, municipal and national governmeut officials, the churches, labor unions, farmers, former landowners, teachers, the barangays, businessmen, and the Dolefil employees. Baldostamon did not find it difficult to deal with the governor of the province, Ismael Sueno, since the governor seemed to realize the potentials of Dolefil in the development of the province, and was willing to pool resources with the company. Recently, the governor promised to “lend” some of his social workers to the community affairs department of Dolefil. Sueno was also happy about the employment generated by + Dolefil, not only in olomolok but throughout the province, andthe fact tat the company paid what he felt were very good salaries for the workers. ‘The governor, however, seemed to have some misgivings about Dolefil. He felt that Dolefil should be giving more taxes to the local government instead of paying to the ational government The P mulion Dolefil pai i tems offal estas taxes and spesial education fyod was not enough, the governor believed, because the company “gets its wealth from South Cotabato". ‘The governor was also apprehensive about the damages that were said to have been attributed to Dolefil, such as soil erosion, chemical pollution, soil depletion, and flash floods. Governor Sueno also felt that if the people of South Cotabato organized, they would be ina better position to do business with Dolefil supplying the company with rawmaterials and other equipment it used for its operations, such as gloves, masks, caps, etc. Or they could form companies that could utilize pineapple wastes, such as fibet for the manufacture of barong tagalog and similar items. ‘The incumbent municipal mayor Jordan Reyes was a classmate of Baldostamon when they took the Program for Development Managers (PDM) course at the Asian Tnstitute of Management (AIM), During the four-week course, Caloy had “useful exchanges" with the town executive about possible concerted activities forthe development of the municipality. One of those planned activities were the joint road building projects where Dolefil would contribute finances and the municipality would provide labor. ‘The other advantage of Dolefil was the fact that some of the municipal officials were employees of the company. Ramo and about six municipal counselors were Dolefil employees. In the past, there did not seem to be such harmonious relationships between Dolefil and the municipal government. A citizen observed that there seemed to have been mutual distrust between these two entities. He hinted that some of the municipal funds meant for development have not been fully accounted for, and development work has been very slow. According to him, the budget allocations of the’ community could have been sufficient to surround the town with concrete roads. Other past town mayors were likewise openly critical of Doletil and the alleged daurages caused by Dolefi i operations. One Dolefil employee, in turn, complained about the local government: "There has been too much politics” in the municipality. "Churches proliferate in Polomolok", Caloy announced, "and there are so many denominations now in this town", Dolefil, he said, did not discriminate in providing assistance to those that sought its help. But the majority were Catholics, One very powerful group was the Basic Christian Community (BCC) which was known in South Cotabato as the "Gamay aga Kristyanong Katllingban" or GKK. According to one lay leader/ coordinator of the GKK, there was at least one GKK chapter in each barangay of Polomolok. A chapter consisted of about 60 to 80 members. Ten GKK chapters composed a district. Seven districts equaled one zone. In the town of Polomolok there were nine zones supervised by zone coordinators. Although the GKK was a religious organization and was mainly concerned about the spiritual upliftment of the members, it nevertheless tried to make the members aware of their rights and the socio-economic and political problems and environment of the community, because, according to Catholic Bishop Donualdo Gutierrez, the Church is concerned with "the whole man, as he lives in his community. "Marcial Bayron, a member of the Parish Council and GKK' Vice Coordinator of District LII described what he felt were some concerns of the people: Dolefil’s "discrimination" among employees; very “Dusinesslike* attitudes; unhealthy influence over some government officials, apparently “illegal land transactions by using dummies"; ‘palakasan" (patronage) for employment; exploitation etc. Dolefil dealt with two unions, the National Federation of Labor (NFL) for the rank and file, which had over two thovsand members, and the Associated Labor Union (ALU) for the employees in the technical sector. The NFL held offices in Polomolok, while the ALU had headquarters in General Santos City. So far Dolefil has not had major problems with the unions, except for some “lightning” sit-down strikes about two years ago, whichwere settled promptly. An NFL member remembered that the strike had something to do with assignments of farm workers and supervisor-employee relationship. A labor leader said that relationship with the company was generally harmonious. So far the union and management have come to terms, and management has complied with the terms and conditions set in the CBA. A new CBA was expected to be negotiated in 1988, the leader said, and the union intended to ask for additional pay and incentives. "We take into consideration the profits of the company when we negotiate." The priority concerns of the union, according to the leader, were the increases in wages and benefits, and the workers job security. ‘The worker felt insecure, he said, because the company Could simply declare it was losing, and start laying-off people. The other aspects seemed to be worrying the laborers recently were the hiring of contractuals, the guerrilla units or hagdaos. ‘The regular workers felt that this system could be a company experiment...that soon Dolefil could just decide it would be cheaper and more advantageous to contract workers than maintain a regular work force. In other words, the workers could be replaced, ‘There were three categories of farmers. ‘The former landowners who sold their farms to the NDC, those who signed management contracts with Dolefil, and the landowners who were still tilling their lands. ‘The former landowners who sold their farms felt that the deal was unfair and one- sided; A retired “teniente del baryo" (barrio lieutenant) and former school teacher said that many former landowners were sorry they sold the land to NDC at prices as low as P 1,000 to P 2,000 for a twelve hectare land, or a maximum of P 1,000 per hectare. Despite the fact that the landowners sold their lands to NDC through "some agents” the farmers felt that they sold to Dolefil and should be compensated by Dolefil. Several opin the municipality indicated thelr suspicions that NDC bought the lands precisely for Dolefil and that everything was "a maneuver", One of the one thousand strong members of the Landowners and Farmers Association, organized in 1985 by a former Polomolok mayor, said that the ex-landowners were not asking for very much. "A little additional compensation, or the permanent ‘employment of at Ieast one son or daughter per farmer would do," she said, After all, she recalled that this was a promise made by Dolefil when the deal was made. The member also recalled that a year ago, their association picketed Dolefil demanding compensation for flood damages and the management pledge of employment for their children. While the mass action was going on they received notice that their municipal permit for the protest * action was, for mysterious reasons withdrawn, ‘They were suddenly “hosed and dispersed, ‘The farmer concluded that Dolefil was too powerful to fight. ‘The objectives of the association were: 1. Call for the unity of all landowner farmers and residential landowners affected by flashfloods in order to attain strength and solidarity in asking for social justice; 2. Appeal to Dolefil not to expand their plantation to the foot of Mt. Matutum such being a contributory cause to the frequency and severity of flash floods. 3. Appeal to Dolefil to pay forthe eroded land afected by fash Hoods comig from Dolefil plantations.4. The original landowners and their direct descendants shall have a priority for employment to positions fitted to their qualifications (or at least one for each familys. 5. Appeal to Dolefil to maintain erosion control measures along the creek, like trenching, retrenching and drop structures to avoid further erosion of land. 6. The recognition of the right of the landowners’ association to negotiate or bargain with Dolefil on behalf of its members. 7. Amount of rental of pineapple lands by Dolefil should be periodically adjusted to be proportionate to the rising cost of consumer goods or inflation. 8. Appeal to Dolefil not to change the natural terrain of the land they use for their plantations, valleys or creeks to avoid strong flash floods. 9. Appeal to barangay, municipal, provincial, regional and national officials for sympathy and support for the cause of the landowners farmers’ association in search for social justice. ‘The Dolefil employees interviewed were generally happy about the salaries and benefits they received from the company, which they felt no other company could give. Exning, a lowly agricultural hourly received at least P 104.00 a day if he did not avail of the incentive scheme offered by the company, or a total of about P 254 a day if he decided to join "the incentives group”. Abe, an hourly paid employee from the technical department received not only his regular hourly pay but also augmented his income by doing overtime work. Abe said that, because of Dolefil, he was able to maintain standards and keep up with inflation. Erning felt that things could have been better for him and his, young family (he had three small children, the eldest being six years old) had it not been for the fact that his wife was sickly and needed to be hospitalized several times. Erming had more problems, Ten years ago he applied as a mechanic, since he had experience working with People’s Car. He did not get the job due to what he called the ‘palakasan’ (patronage) system. For ten years he worked as a reqular agricultural hourly paid worker. Every morning he had to wake up at 3:30 a.m. and leave for the fields on top a truck "like the ories used to ferry cows and livestock". The workers were packed like sardines and brought to the fields where they cooked and ate breakfast. They started 7 working at 6:00 aim. and did not stop until 1:00 a.m, for meal time. Everyday, they had to suffer the cold of the mornings and the heat of the noonday sun to earn their Keep. If he joined the incentives group he would have to work doubly hard to qualify and avail of the incentives. When Erning reached home he would be too tired to even relax with his children..."Ang ako’g lawas...sobrang hanog" he complained (my body...t0o sore). ‘The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) Recently a new law was approved and signed, placing the Philippines under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARE). The law involved the redistribution of land all over the country to millions of beneficiaries. It had specific provisions on themultinational corporations and their plantations, the NDC leased lands, and some mention about profit sharing, Baldostamon was unruffled, The company would abide by all the laws of the country where it was located, he said, unless these laws would make business a losing proposition. In that case, the last resort would be for the company to pull out. But Caloy ‘was optimistic. He said that Dolefil would welcome the opportunity for it to be a model among multinationals in the implementation of the new law. It had tried to inquire from the government entities about the new guidelines so it could prepare their implementation. But the guidelines were not yet available. In the absence of the guidelines, the company was s puzzled. Manny Lopez, the chief. industrial relations officer wanted to know who the beneficiaries of the land transfer would be. Dolefil employees? Would the industrial workers be included? Regarding profit sharing--would it be for both the industrial and agricultural sectors? Caloy said that, based on his discussions with different sectors which included the labor leaders, the consensus seemed to be that the beneficiaries would form a cooperative or corporation. Dolefil, he said, could deal with this entity the same way it dealt with NDC. Nothing would change much if this were the case. He added that the company has held dialogues with the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) officials and DAR seemed satisfied with the attitudes of the Dolefil officers. ‘The following were some of the pertinent provisions of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988 (RA No. 6657) approved and signed into law by President Corazon C. ‘Aquino on June 10, 1988. Sec. 3. Definition...Agrarian Reform means the redistribution of lands, regardless of crops or fruits produced, to farmers and regular farmworkers who are landless, irrespective of tenurial arrangement, to include the totality of factors and support services designed to lift the economic status of the beneficiaries and all other arrangements alternative to the physical redistribution of lands, such as production or profit-sharing, labor administration, and distribution of shares of stock, which will allow beneficiaries to receive a just share of the fruits of the lands they work... Sec. 4. Scope - ..shall cover, regardless of tenurial arrangement and commodity roduced, all public aid private agricultural lands as provided in Proclamation No. 131 and ecutive Order No. 229, including other lands of the public domain suitable for agriculture... Sec. 5. Schedule of implementation...immediately and completed within ten (ten) years from...effectivity. Sec, 6. Retention Limits...in no case shall retention by the landowner exceed five (5) hectares. Three (3) hectares may be awarded to each child of the landowner, subject. to ..qualifications.-original homestead...shall retain the same areas as long as they continue to cultivate said homestead...Sec. 8. Multinational Corporations.- All lands of the public domain leased, held or possessed by multinational corporations or associations, and other lands owned by the government or by government-owned or controlled corporations, associations, institutions, Or entities, devoted to existing and operational agri-business or agro-industrial enterprises, operated by multinational corporations and associations, shall be programmed for acquisition and distribution immediately upon the effectivity of this Act, with the implementation to be completed within three (3) years...in no case will such leases and other agreements now being implemented extend beyond August 29, 1992, when all lands subject hereof shall have been distributed completely to qualified beneficiaries or awardees... .-lands leased, held or possessed by multinational corporations... stall be subject to immediate compulsory acquisition and distribution upon the expiration of the applicable lease, management, grower or service contract in effect as of August 29, 1887 or otherwise, upon its valid termination, whichever comes sooner, but not later than after ten (10) years following the effectivity of this Act... .-in general, land shall be distributed directly to the individual worker-beneficiaries. In case it is not economically feasible and sound to divide the land, then they shall form a workers’ corporation or business association which will deal with the corporation or business association or any other proper party for the purpose of entering into a lease or growers agreement and other legitimate purposes. --in no case shall a foreign corporation, association, entity or individual enjoy rights or privileges better than those enjoyed by a domestic corporation, association, entity or individual. Dolefil’s Contributions to Development As far as Caloy Baldostamon remembered, the company has always stressed its mission to help the country in the task of nation building. ‘This was mentioned in the leaflet circulated to Dolefil visitors. The paragraph read: "To make available quality Dole pineapple products to as many customers as possible, and be one of the country’s biggest partners in its march toward nation building...is the essence of Dolefil’s incorporation and the very reason for its existence." Dolefil’s assistance and contributions to the country, the province of South Cotabato and the municipality of Polomolok were further highlighted in another brochure recently published which enumerated and explained the following contributions: ~ provision of employment opportunities to over 11,000 people in South Cotabato and ava, and paying them wages and salaries which were fifly percent higher than the government required minimum wage. Dolefil paid a total of US $25 million annually for salaries alone (equivalent to P 525 million). - provision of fringe benefits such as free medical and hospitalization benefits, group insurance coverage, and paid vacation and sick leaves for the employees of the company, and hospitalization plan for the dependents of employees. 10~ construction, staffing and equipping a hospital with a 95-bed capacity which served 5,000 in-patients and 86,000 out-patients annual ~ construction of two housing projects, the Lantana and Polotana subdivisions and granting of 30 percent subsidies to employees who built and constructed their homes near the cannery site; - establishment of community water system in the cannery area which benefited around 4,000 families; - implementation of health care and sanitation programs, by sending teams to visit all barangays on a continuing basis, distributing riedicines, conducting lectures, and putting up sanitary toilets and facilities; - financial and material support to private and public educational institutions in the cannery area and neighboring communities. This included the construction of school buildinigs and donations of school chairs, books, and other school needs; - subsidy of the Jose L. Valencia Academy, a school ran by the Marist Brothers in Polomolok, South Cotabato; - scholarship program for teachers who wanted to pursue graduate courses related to education. These, and many more contributions and activities that were not mentioned, appeared to satisfy the management of Dolefil and the people involved in the programs and projects. But they did not seem to satisfy the people, Baldostamon observed. Baldostamon sensed that an undetermined number of people were not only dissatisfied about the efforts of Dolefil to.assist in development, but actually felt adverse to the presence of Dolefil in the area. Some people seemed to hit that the assistance seal donations given by Dolefil were some kind of payment for a debt, which were never enough, and, the little perceived faults and omissions of Dolefil were always magnified. Caloy narrated that once he attended a seminar workshop of the Basic Christian Community (BCC) in the parish and was shocked when he heard one of the lectures. The speaker actually attacked Dolefil as an exploiter, and downgraded the incentives the company offered to employees which incentives allowed them to get additional pay for the extra hours they worked after they reached their quota in less ‘than their usual eight hours work, Although Caloy never remembered any serious differences with past mayors and municipal authorities, he nevertheless felt there was little coordination between Dolefl and the municipal officials. Dolefil and the municipality had been initiating projects on their own with very little help from each other. Caloy was bothered. He was appointed superintendent of the community affairs department (CAD) seven months ago, on January 1988. It was his duty to plan, design, recommend and implement a program or programs that would benefit the most number of people in the community, as efficiently and effectively as possible. Now he was asked to repare a plan and budget for the 1988-89 operations. He started reviewing the CAD story. aThe Community Affairs Department ‘The CAD was created as a separate department under the industrial relations division (IRD) on July 1979 and was tasked to "take care of all philanthropic activities of the company". Before CAD existed, the IRD used to oversee all these activities. The first superintendent of the department was Luis V. Heramil who held office until he retired in 1987. Caloy Baldostamon succeeded him as the second CAD superintendent. CAD secretary C. Belarma has been with the department since 1979. She recalled that when Dolefil was new, it did not have a single unit concentrating on community relations. Donations were handled ay the different divisions concerned in accordance with the requests from the community. For example, when building or classroom construction was needed, the engineering division took care of it. The company later centralized ‘community assistance functions under the IRD which expanded and gave birth to the CAD. The CAD started in 1979 with only two people - the superintendent and a secretary. ‘Their initial functions were to process requests of the community for donations and assistance. Donations were mostly for infrastructures, such as school buildings and road construction and maintenance, and reforestation. On December, 1979, the CAD organized the Mahintana Foundation. It hired one supervisor and one social worker, and loaned from the hospital one nurse and a midwife. ‘The funds from the Mahintana Foundation came from the declared dividends of the Sarangani Realty Corporation, the real estate arm of Dolefil.. CAD created the foundation to care for the health of employees and their dependents. Services were later extended to all residents of the community in all barangays of the municipality. ‘When employees from Barangay Klinan 6 reported incidents of gastroenteritis and other diseases caused by polluted water, the foundation promptly put up a water system. ‘When the foundation discovered that the infants’ high mortality rate was mostly caused by measles and measle-related discases, it embarked into a mobile health program which brought medicine to the barangays of Polomolok and the neighboring municipality of Tupi. “In the beginning our operations were mostly curative," C. Belarma said, “until we realized that this was not enough. We needed to teach and train the people to take care of themselves." From then on the foundation started to gather the people in the barangays it visited, and lectured to them about the proper way of taking care of themselves and preventing diseases. In 1981 the CAD decided to utilize a patch of land near the cannery site, by developing a model garden for community livelihood. It subdivided a 3.5 hectare land into ninety plots and assigned each to the same number of beneficiaries living around the area. Dole supplied the seeds, fertilizers and medicines, The beneficiaries supplied labor. Produce and proceeds went to the beneficiaries who were asked to pay the company for the supplies at cost. As of August 1988 the project was still existing although there was a lesser number of beneficiaries. Some did not persevere because they got fed up ("tinamiad sila"), and others went into other businesses. ‘Those who stayed were given additional lots to till. This experiment was replicated in three more sites. 12Another project was not quite successful. It was a plantation of pomelo in a land owned by the company. Dolefil hired residents to cultivate and maintain the fields. The people did not cooperate. "They did not seem to care," Belarma said, "they seemed to care only for themselves.” [The Company, through: CAD, went into duck raising, It supplied twenty dueks 10 each of the twenty beneficiaries and some bags of cement for the ponds. The beneficiaries were to care of the ducks as their own and pay the company for the cost of the ducks, either in kind or on a P 50.00 a month installment basis. The result was that some duck. projects folded up. The others still existed, and CAD was still collecting from the beneficiaries. The project had a bad experience with one community leader who was supposed to distribute the ducks to the t eneficiaries. The leader simply put up one huge pond and put all the ducks in a single project. After some time the leader disappeared. He was said to have joined the rebels in the mountains. One of the latest projects which Baldostamon found promising was the black pepper model farm, The company put up the farm in a three-heetare land. ‘This was to serve as a show window for the community. Caloy said: "We want to show the farmers how much money we can get for limited areas of land. The CAD wanted the farmers to diversify and plant higi: value crops and expand horizontally.” ‘When Caloy took over in January, the staff had grown to thirteen people. It was composed of a superintendent, a secretary, two supervisors, one social worker, a nurse, a midwife, and six utility men, The utility men had different functions and skills: two were Grivers, one was a carpenter, the other a plumber, the fifth, a mason, and the last was a janitor/messesiger. ‘The copy of the previous superintendent’s worksheet showed the variety of projects the CAD was trying to implement as of 1987. Among them were: 1. The continued implementation of infrastructure projects 2. Renovation of Polo barangay hall 3. Completion of the Catholic Women’s League building in General Santos City 4, Construction of Polomolok Catholic Church building Donation of materials for the completion of the Jose Catolico Puericulture and the family planning center Refurbishing of the Purok Nasidlangan Twinkers school building 22 Cannery road concreting project Assistance to Polomolok in its road concreting project Construction of schoo! building with three classrooms in Calumpang 10. Development of a Boy Scouts of the Philippines campsite 1311. Donation of 500 armchairs to various schools in Polomolok and Tupi 12. Construction of a school building for Polomolok Central School with two rooms 13. Propagation and planting of yellow cacia seeds for erosion control and reforestation » programs 14, Continued operation of the Mahintana Health Service by conducting health education seminars and free rural clinics, intensifying anti-drug abuse campaign, and implementing operation timbang and deworming activities 15. Developing self-reliant communities through implementation of black pepper production with a target of twenty hectares initially, expansion of citrus farm to an additional five hectares, developing twelve hectares for rice and corn planting, and identification of more land for coffee plantation 16. Continuing the model garden project ‘The donations of Dolefil to the community came from three sources: the community affairs budget; the Dolefil charities fund, and; the Mahintana Foundation funds. In four years of operation, from 1983 to 1986, the Community Affairs Department donated a total of P 1,709,738 in 1983; P 2,013,460 in 1984; P28LLATS in 1985, and P 3,886,398 in 1986. ‘The'donations were five percent of profit before taxes in’ 1983; four percent in 1984; six percent in 1985; and four percent of profit before taxes in 1986. The Superintendent’s Observations ‘The new superintendent was not fully satisfied with CAD’s past performance. He felt that, with all the money earmarked for development, more could be done, and some Tasting changes could be instituted in the community. It was not enough for the company to simply "dole out". Caloy understood that the company was a business concern, and that its primary concerns were to earn profits. In the past, and as in other countries where Dole Operated, contributing to charities was just a simple policy to establish good relationships with the community...and the easiest way to do this was to simply donate. "The company was task oriented." It responded swiftly and directly on a case-to-case basis. It assisted in income augmentation and helped in terms of technology, but “it did not work on the character of the people..there was none on attitudes...which caused all these problems in the first place." The people, Caloy added, have become too dependent...” everybody just waits for other people to serve them’. This attitude, he said, prevailed even in the local government. In the past, the officials tended to wait for Dolefil to initiate things. Caloy continued: "I did a little environment scanning..." he said, and found that the ‘company has been very concerned about education, the yout, environment conservation, health and infrastructure. He agreed that these needed attention. "We have poor quality education, and we lack facilities’. He noted that company intervention was in terms of granting scholarships to teachers, constructing buildings, and donating money and materials. He suggested: "Why don’t we tap the Parents Teachers Association (PTA)?" ‘The PTA had tremendous potentials that could be harnessed for the good of the school and the educational institutions. These associations should be made to participate, Caloy 14emphasized. Then he gave an example: "Year in and year out, the school authorities have asked for and were given school chairs. The chairs would cost the company something like P'125 each. Recently, a school requested for some pallets the company could spare. ‘The school would take care of labor in converting the pallets (made of palo china) into school chairs, Each pallet cost the company only about Pasco er piece. The company saved about a hundred pesos per chair which it could plow back to other useful development projets, and spread is assistance to as many people as possible.” To Caloy this lustrated ow far the benefits would go if there were participation by the community. The company had, in the past, been designing programs and projects to keep the young busy and far removed from mischiefs. "Why not organize and train the youth to become leaders and able to design and manage their own programs and activities,” Caloy asked. "We should also help the farmers develop themselves," Caloy further stressed. The company should encourage them to venture into new products like black pepper and other cash crops. They should expand horizontally. "We have the resourees, the technology and the competence to help therm help themselves.” Noting the high mortality rate of Polomolok and Tupi barangay residents, Caloy suggested that the people should be organized and trained for them to avail of basic services from the government and other agencies. He felt that Dolefil should concentrate more on people participation than on infrastructure projects. Caloy believed that there should be better coordination between Dolefil and the local government. Dolefil had the resources and was not hamstrung by so many constraints and redtape. ‘The government had the mission and enough manpower to develop the community and care for the socio-economic needs of the community. ‘The thrust of the CAD superintendent for 1988 was to encourage community participation and reciprocating action. "The only way to develop them," Caloy said about the community, "is to have them participate...have them appreciate what you are trying to do...which is for them...and give them a sense of ownership.” The strategy was to train the CAD personnel in community organizing by enlisting the help of NGOS like the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) and the South. Cotabato Foundation. Dolefil could either send personnel to Manila or Some other places in the Philippines, or invite outside trainors to Dolefil. "Community organization and participation will definitely be an addition,” Caloy ied. "We will continue with our present charitable and philanthropic activities" lat The Dolefil management has already approved, in principle, the plans of Calo; Baldostamon, and was ready to support them, "I seem to have things going for me," Caloy Salad, ‘muMiesreOr mippace me the poeeriss of South Cotubain s willan to help, ea, the people coud be very cooperative if they understood the importance of the programs 0 their lives.” Caloy’s main task appeared to be one of detailing his strategy in.o specific action plans. Since he had a general idea of where he should redirect Dolefil’s community relations, the nitty-gritty of the "how" remained to be spelled out in a comprehensive program, 15