MILITANT group Bayan-Negros hit Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. for reportedly claiming there is no feudalism here in Negros and if there is, it affects only a few.
Michael Dela Concepcion, secretary-general of Bayan-Negros, stressed that the presence of haciendas in the hands of few families is enough proof of the feudal system, adding that 380,000 sugar workers are not few for a benchmark.
“Although the medieval feudalism brought by Spain has long gone, Negros polity are well entrenched on landlords and hacienderos,” Dela Concepcion added.
“Pakyaw-system in hacienda undermines the minimum wage of P295 for agricultural workers, a blatant disrespect to the sugar workers, a slave-like treatment,” Dela Concepcion said.
The difference of classic feudalism and the Negros current system is that the Negrense elite removes the worker from slavery by only a few degrees, but still under their subjugation, he added.