BALIKÍD: A MEDIA CAMPAIGN ADRESSING INSTITUTIONAL AND ECONOMIC INEQUALITIES IN

THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR - RATIONALE

Sergs Niño D. Samson, A11, BSSW-1
[GROUP 10]

Manong Gibo, a 40 year-old farmer whose contract to the hacienda is long overdue for
regularization. What’s stopping him from being regular? You might ask. Well, for one, Manong
Gibo has never attended formal education like the rest of the us. He is ignorant of his benefits,
employment and rights for that matter. Hell, he doesn’t even know what a “contract” means.
As he enters his humble nipa house with calloused hands and shaky feet, he sets his hat on the
table alongside a pile of outstanding balances to his kumare’s sari-sari store. As the night
creeped along the walls of his home, he pulls the string that triggered light, but alas, it hadn’t
turned on. “You forgot? We haven’t paid our bills yet,” says his wife—chuckling. He looks at his
two daughters whom are writing beside a “kingki,” a little kerosene lamp popularly used during
blackouts by Filipino families. On the paper they wrote – “Even though we are poor and eat
only salted ‘lugaw’ everyday, and get flooded whenever it rains because of holes in the roof, we
still love our family.” -- He looks away in dismay, with a tear running down his’ cheek. A streak
of light in the sky catches his eye; he says to himself, “please let the six (6) generations of tilling
soil end with them.” Many Gibo, like many others, go to this extreme everyday, yet are still
underpaid, delayed, overworked and generally oppressed by the very system that promised
them relief. And the publicly accepted consensus, to the extent that it’s even taught in school,
is that, “IT’S THEIR FAULT.” NO.

Despite the state enacting various agricultural laws, farmers are still extensively
prejudiced under the eyes of the law: (1) they suffer arbitrary labor violations; (2) grave abuses
of discretion; (3) unbridled monopolization of the manufacturing process; (4) normalized child-
labor; (5) institutionalization of informal contracting and sub-contracting; (6) retrenchment of
wages and, at worst case, retrenchment of employment. These, among any other violations of
the same nature and of varying degrees, are clear-cut violations to [substantive] due process of
law and the equal protection clause embedded in (Art. 3, Sec. 1 of the 1987 Constitution). In
addition to that, are the many infringements to labor standards in relation to the Phillipine
Labor Code and R.A. 7606 or Magna Carta for Small Farmers which provides the basic lengths as
to which the rights of farmers can extend to. Moreso, legal impediments that give license for
exploitation in the various Business Laws of the country such as the absence of corporate
liability and ‘Endo’ contractualization. Raw palay is now sold for only 13 pesos per kg. since
Rice Tariffication Law was put into effect (circa: March, 2019). The law removed previously
placed quota on rice imports, permitting traders to import a near-unlimited quantity of rice.
Dealing another massive blow to our local farmers. And the list of inequalities goes on.
 This is a clear lens to see the hold of free-market capitalism and bureaucracy to
Philippine politics and legislations. In the end it’s all about how much the profit margins
stretched the economy. The image of the BIG FEW is much more important than the lives of the
MINISCULE MASSES. Our rights end when the rights of others begin, but for the sake of
“national interest,” stepping on our own people is justifiable as long as it brings us higher up
the international food-chain; in a food-chain wherein you either eat or get eaten. In a game
where we must sacrifice pawns to pave way for the officials and the oligarchs to survive.
Perpetualization of inequality continues to exist not because of the lack of opportunity and
fairness per se, but rather, the decline of both thereof. The vicious cycle of capitalization keeps
the poor at bay, uncontented, but unable to do anything. Chronic poverty persists because the
capitalist political structure permits it so.

So what is the preferential option for the poor? More social welfare legislations? More
donations? More dissent? More unions? More laws? More rights? No! Poverty is a provisional
product of systemic inequality. The best solution to this is to defuse monopolization, expose
selfish-business agendas, identify early signs of capitalization, reduce foreign trade-imports and
eradicate systemic corruption entirely [both in the public and private sector]. By icorporating
the law of scarcity in economics, where money is a finite resource, then big earners, in reality,
are limiting the circulation of wealth to their circle only. Thus, taking away the chance to
progress for the poor. If the state enacts profit regulations to the private sector, then they are
giving leverage for the poor to share in the country’s wealth also. We cannot give adequate
solution to poverty by providing more, yet let corruption run rampant. However, we may
effectively reduce it by lessening the grip greed has on our country.

Equality is a call for equal opportunity to progress, if not in the same speed, then in the
same equal manner as to which everyone is given. Liberty cannot standalone without the
search for equal treatment and vice versa. Together, let’s redefine economics and politics on
the basis of human dignity. To be given the chance by virtue of freedom from institutional
prejudice is a human right as it is economical. Let us give the Manong Gibo’s of the world a
better fighting chance in this ruthless arena that is—Life.