The Del Pilar Story
Barangay Marcelo H. Del Pilar, named after a propagandist-hero in the revolutionary struggle against Spanish colonization of the Philippines more than a century ago, is located in the municipality of Alicia, Isabela province. It is home to 987 households or 3,226 individuals, most of whom are farmers owning small landholdings, ranging from 1 to 5 hectares.
As in the case of many rural farming communities in the country, the farmers in Del Pilar do not have much control over the economic activities from which they derive their livelihood. Life is a difficult routine of pitting their brawns in the rice fields from sunrise to sundown without much advancement as they remain powerless against the ever-rising costs of seeds and farm inputs and even at the prices at which they should sell their produce.
Because their crop yields are barely enough for their family’s sustenance before the next harvest season, they don’t have any surplus with which to acquire seeds at the next planting season and fertilizers, pesticides and other inputs for their growing crops. Hence, they are forced to borrow money from traders or money lenders who charge exorbitant interests, averaging 5% monthly, although there is one lender who charged as high as 20% a month to those who have nowhere else to go.
Sometime in 2000, a group of farmers in the community formed the St. Peter’s Savings and Credit Cooperative under the Community-Based Development Program of the Episcopal Diocese of Santiago. From an initial membership of 15 persons and a members’ equity of P37,000, it has steadily grown with 39 members and equity of P988,896 and total assets of P1,969.819 [as of December 2006]. It charges a monthly interest rate of only 2%.
The services of the coop was intensified in 2007 when, through a project under CBDP, it established a solar drying pavement measuring 450 square meters and a drying capacity of 100 cavans of rice at one time as well as a rice storage area that can accommodate 5,000 cavans. With these facilities, the members of the coop as well as other farmers in the barangay are now paying much lesser fees for drying than what they used to pay at the facilities of big rice traders nor do they make use of the highways for palay drying, that result in high wastage and low crop quality, not to mention the risks and the traffic disturbance that it creates. Likewise, by storing their crops, they are no longer forced to sell even when prices are unreasonably low as dictated by the traders.
Caridad Arellano was among the original members of St. Peter’s Savings and Credit Cooperative. She comes from Bagnen, Bauko, Mountain Province but with no college degree, she got engaged in buy-and-sell of various items from blankets to fancy jewelries that took her to various parts of the country. She got married in 1979 and her family went back to Bagnen in 1988. In 1993, however, in search of greener pastures, her family moved to Del Pilar with nothing but their transport money. For years, she and her husband worked as hired laborers in other peoples’ ricefields until they were able to save and acquire a 300 sq. m. land upon which they built a temporary residential shack. It was at this point that they finally felt they belonged to the community as they now had something they can call their own even if it was just a “kalapaw”. She recalls those days when they considered themselves as “non-persons” and thus did not socialize nor mingle with our people in the community. Some more years went by and they were able to slowly improve their shack into a more permanent dwelling.
When St. Peter’s Coop was established, Caridad and her husband borrowed an amount which they in turn loaned out in exchange for a hectare of land, by way of mortgage. They worked on this land until it was finally sold to them. Still, they worked on other peoples’ ricefields to augment the produce of their land. With the low interest rates of the coop, they availed of several loan cycles and acquired two (2) additional hectares of riceland and a hand tractor. Further deliverance from hand-to-mouth existence came when the coop’s drying and storage facilities were established and enabled them to improve the quality of their produce and a bargaining power in determining its selling price. When the price of rice soared at the beginning of this year, she was able to sell palay at P22.50 and thus was able to buy a new engine for their hand tractor. With the services of the coop, where she is now a member of the Board of Directors, her family’s income has relatively stabilized.
Lydia Guitelen, also an original member, owns one hectare and leases an additional 800 square meter riceland. Like most of her barangay mates, she and her husband work as hired helpers in other farms in order to make both ends meet for their family. Her son, Guiagui Guitelen, has a family of his own, and owns two hectares of riceland. When the coop was not yet established, the two families were in perennial debt, as their farm produce oftentimes could not pay their debts for seeds and inputs. The establishment of the coop was therefore an immense relief that allowed them to retire all their usurious borrowings from private money lenders and traders. With the relatively much lower interest rates and drying and storage facilities, they were able to make a profit when price went up to P22.50 per kilo of palay. Lydia was able to repair her house while her son was able to construct a new house and establish a backyard piggery.
Another coop member, Domingo Bagnus, was able to establish a furniture shop.
Benny Podes is among those who own bigger tracts of land. He has ten hectares of riceland. But because he is dependent on loan sharks to capitalize his farming activities, he often ends up with not much surplus. In fact, he has to augment their farm income, he is engaged in the buy and sell of blankets, going around villages within the province for this trade, during the months when the level of farm work has ebbed. He was among the original member of the coop and has been one of its good borrowers for the past 7 years. With the savings he got from lower interest rates, he was able to buy a hand tractor and consequently was also able to do away with tractor rental costs. When the price of rice skyrocketed this year, he was able to make a windfall and bought a surplus engine for his hand tractor.
Caridad, Lydia, Guiagui, Domingo and Benny are among the farmers in Del Pilar whose lives, hitherto a physically back-breaking and yet hand-to-mouth existence, were transformed with the establishment of St. Peter’s Savings and Credit Cooperative and its various facilities. They are among the farmers who re-affirmed the many possibilities that can be brought about by communal action. Their gradual emancipation from the burden of un-ending onerous debts and from the dehumanizing control of economic activities by big traders strengthened their resolve to seek strength from their collective undertakings. They have seen the sudden increase in rice prices at the beginning of this year. But the increase in prices also covered many other commodities, including farm inputs, and so whatever they enjoyed from the rising of rice prices was almost immediately eaten up by the corresponding price hikes. Yet, they have somehow anticipated this and thus have made some small windfalls (as described above) before the adverse corresponding effects set in. They are now looking at prices of all commodities still going up in strides. But this is nothing new to them. And as long as they are united in the coop, they believe they have the collective capability to work their way through this crisis.
Indeed, the struggle of the Filipino people for genuine freedom, as inspired by Marcelo H. Del Pilar and other heroes as well as the countless men and women who worked for Philippine independence from colonization, continues and is now fought in the arena of debilitating poverty and social inequities in the land. But as Chief Justice Reynato Puno said in his Independence Day Address last 12th June 2008, the only way by which we can lose the battle against poverty is if we lose our sense of revolt against the revolting life of the poor.