Poor and landless

In Tarlac province, about 100 kms north of Manila, Hacienda Luisita was once touted as a showcase of the land reform program. Here, however, CARP has failed to win the hearts and minds of farmers: In recent random interviews, they told Bulatlat.com that their lives have been ruined further because of CARP. Luisita is owned by the family of former President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino.
One of the workers, Francisco Nakpil, is an agricultural worker in the sugarcane plantation of Hacienda Luisita, Inc. (HLI) for 45 years. When the stock distribution options (SDO) scheme under CARP was introduced in the hacienda in 1989, Nakpil became one of the 7,000 workers who became instant “stockholders” of the agro-corporation. Within 30 years under this scheme, hacienda owners were to transfer 32 percent of the total stocks of the company to the farm workers.
For the past 15 years, Nakpil received an average daily wage of P9, a sack of rice every month, a P4,000 educational loan every June and an average annual three percent profit share of around P2,000. Based on reasonable market price equivalents of the material benefits, Nakpil was in effect getting an average yearly income of P17,760 - or P48.66 daily. For being an HLI stockholder, he also got a 240 square meter home lot.
Yet, has Nakpil become richer through the land reform program?
Today at 62, Nakpil says he has only a home lot souvenir from the HLI, a P20,000 separation pay, and some P2,600 monthly pension from the Social Security System. His retirement ended his profit share from the HLI. He does not have land to pass on to his children. His monthly pension gave him just P86 a day that can hardly meet his family’s needs.


A must watch video clip from youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSQOBJSPtxE

Ang link sa taas na nakuha ko sa youtube ay nagpapakita ng katapangan ng bawat Pilipino na pinaglalaban ang kanilang karapatan. Matagal na nilang pinaglalaban ang kanilang lupa na napag kasunduan na ipapamahagi pagkatapos ng 10 taon. Ngunit naka lipas na ang 10 taon at wala pa silang natatanggap na lupa sa Hacienda Luisita. Madami nang nagbuwis ng buhay at nasugatan para sa lupaing ito. Tama lang na ipaglaban ang karapatan ng bawat manggagawa at farmers.

And so his answer in Filipino: “I am poor, past and present.”