NEWS RELEASE
Partido Manggagawa-Negros
28 July 2015
The rise of ‘new sacadas’ in
Negros belie the claim of President Aquino during his State of the Nation
Address (SONA) yesterday that the country is now moving from cheap labor to
high-tech producer.
Fresh from the joint
consultation-workshop on the state of sugar workers held in Bacolod City last
Sunday, the Negros chapter of Partido Manggagawa (PM-Negros) and the Sentro ng
Nagkakaisang Manggagawa (Sentro) described as ‘first world falsehood’ the assertion
of the President that high-tech production is taking over cheap labor that for
a long time characterized the Philippine labor force.
“What country are you talking
about, Mr. President? Negros is now
home to BPOs yet the island remains a country of sacadas,” said the two groups
in a statement.
It is clear, according to PNoy,
“The Filipino can now compete. Previously our only selling point was
cheap labor. Now factories for high-tech equipment are coming here,
from airplane parts, electrical tricycles, printers, and other digital media
products to high-quality medical devices.”
During their Sunday consultation,
PM-Negros presented a study that pointed to the rise of ‘new sacadas’ in Negros resulting from the dismal failure of agrarian
reform in the island as well as the massive contractualization of farm works in
the Sugarlandia.
“The old dumaans (regular
workers) were replaced by tens of thousands and contractual workers. And the migrant
sacadas that mainly came from Panay and other
neighboring provinces before are now replaced by inland sacadas -- a phenomenon
that suggests a downside shift in labor relations in the island,” explained the
group.
According to PM-Negros, the ‘new
sacadas’ of Negros is represented now by tens
of thousands of contractual farm workers who comprise at least 80% of the total
workforce in sugar plantations in the island. They receive not more
than P150 per day working as planters, weeders, fertilizer applicators,
harvesters and haulers.
“Until the late 90s, Negros sourced its shortage of sacadas from outside of
the island but now the internal labor market is heavily populated with
contractual, seasonal and mobile workers who perform work previously done by
regular workers or the dumaans,” said the two groups.
For PM and Sentro, the combination
of failed agrarian reform and the onslaught of contractualization schemes
created this phenomenon as workers who were displaced due to massive
retrenchments lost their employee-employer relationship (EER) and eventually
their right to become land reform beneficiaries.
“This condition left at least
100,000 hectares with no more agrarian reform beneficiaries to claim the lands,
creating in effect an army of sacadas that hop from one hacienda to another
around the island to find work,” explained the group.
This state of sugar workers in Negros , added the groups, is further threatened by the
expected adverse impact of Asean integration on Philippine agriculture once the
zero tariff regime begins to be implemented this year.
“We expect massive job loss once
the country’s sugar industry fails to survive the intense competition with Thai
and Vietnamese sugar,” said PM.
The saddest point, said PM and
Sentro, is to hear the SONAs of the past and present Presidents, without any
mention of the pressing problems in Negros ,
specifically the life of sugar workers.
“Ang problema namon, amon lang
gid problema. Isa kami sa halimbawa sang SONA nga indi matalupangdan,” concluded the group.
