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Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Tamayong banana growers bewail unfair contracts
By Grace L. Plata
DAVAO CITY -- A group of small banana growers from Tamayong said they are unhappy of their ties with banana companies, while two small banana growers expressed contentment with their contract last week.
In a press conference held at the 5th Street Cafe in Ecoland Monday, the group hit the banana companies, saying their miserable economic condition was brought about by the "unfair agreement" they have entered into with the companies and not because of the ordinance as what the Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA) has claimed.
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Canuto Demetrio, chairperson of the Tamayong Integrated Saging Cooperative (Tam-is Coop), said there is no truth to the statement of PBGEA that the aerial spraying ordinance will make the small banana growers penniless. It is rather the small banana growers' contracts with the companies that made them suffer.
"Truth is aerial spraying is even an added burden to the growers because it is actually the farmers who pay for the high cost of the chemical application. We are even happy that there is an ordinance because we will finally be freed from the high cost of spraying. Right now, the small growers are also fighting an enemy that is so big it is fast eating us up, draining us down," Demetrio said.
He added: "We can no longer take this. We entered into a growership agreement with the companies in the hope that it will make our lives better, but instead, our lives have become miserable."
Since 1999, debts of the members of the cooperative have piled up to as much as P2-million. Demetrio, for instance, is indebted to the Highland Banana Corporation to the tune of P1.9-million as of June 2007. He believes this has ballooned now to more than P2-million.
Joven Revilla, who also has a standing P2-million account, said it is almost impossible for the farmers to settle the account considering the small amount they get from the "one-sided partnership."
Revilla said the last statement of payment he received from Highland Banana Corporation was zero, all eaten up by his debts. Demetrio also had the same experience.
For the month of May, Demetrio received P0.00 as a net take home pay because of the deductions that were not transparent. For his three-hectare farm, Demetrio got P13,650.79 total proceeds, but the company deductions totaled to the same amount leaving him with nothing.
The deductions, Demetrio said, included P2,825.78 for development cost, P1,321.71 for materials, P3,071.52 for collective operation, P792.50 for harvesting labor, and P1,321.71 for "other" payments. Also deducted from him was the amount P3,490.56 for sigatoka charges, apparently for aerial spraying operations.
Revilla said the agreement started to become a source of their hardship when they refused to agree to the "deviation" proposed by the company.
He was referring to the collectivized operations where the small growers are asked to give up all operational rights to the company, including the provision where they will be the one who will provide laborers and farm workers.
Collectivized operations, Revilla said, was forcibly enforced by the company and those who opposed the change, like him and at least 40 other members of the cooperative, started getting the P0.00 net take home pay.
Revilla believes that these developments were part of the plan of the company to stretch its occupancy to their land as the contract is supposed to end by 2009.
"The company wants to remain in control of our lands and to continually utilize them. They want us to reconstruct or renew the existing onerous contracts but with what has been happening to us recently, we could no longer find any good reasons to work with them," Revilla said.
Recently, PBGEA said that small banana growers would suffer if the ordinance banning aerial spraying will be implemented. The group of banana companies had also consistently predicted the demise of the banana industry if the ordinance passes through the legal arena.
After the ordinance was signed into law early this year, PBGEA brought their opposition to it to the court. But after the lower court upheld the constitutionality of the ordinance, PBGEA elevated their case to the Court of Appeals and was eventually granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the ordinance. (Sun.Star Davao/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Baguio. (December 18, 2007 issue)
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