From: apakabar@IGC.APC.ORG ("Indonesia Publications/Task Force", by way
 of gustilo@pop-server.upenn.edu)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.filipino
Subject: PH: Tensions in Negros (forwarded from SEASIA-L)
Date: 31 Jul 92 03:34:03 GMT


/* Written 10:26 am  Jul 30, 1992 by gn:geonet in cdp:geo2.philippin */
/* ---------- "CRISIS IN RP SUGARLAND" ---------- */
Subject: CRISIS IN RP SUGARLAND
From: GEO2:NEWSSERV-PHIL
Date: 30-07-92, 08:20:36
To: PHILIPPINES
Cc: UUCP:JAGDISH@CHASQUE.APC.ORG

Philippine News and Features
International Dispatch No. 14
July 29, 1992
----------------------------------------
<<Sugar imports
<<NEGROS SOCIAL VOLCANO ABOUT TO ERUPT ANEW?
<<PLANTERS TOLD TO LEND FARM LOTS
BACOLOD CITY (COBRA-ANS/PNF) -- Tensions are brewing in
Negros island, alternatively known as Sugarland and the "social
volcano." Fueled by an economic recession and land disputes,
the conflicts are raising fears of a resurgence of violence.
Already the newly-elected governor Rafael Coscolluela has
raised the alarm of another economic crisis here. He called on
the sugar producing elite to share ten percent of their land to
workers in anticipation of hunger on the farms.
Coscolluela's warnings came after President Fidel Ramos
announced the lifting of  import restrictions on raw sugar last
week. To mollify sugar planters, government raised tariffs on
sugar imports and postponed implementation of the
liberalization plan to October.
Negros Occidental Rep. Romeo Guanzon said lower tariff
barriers could lead to an oversupply of sugar and bring about
political instability and social unrest if thousands are laid-
off here. Some 300,000 workers work on sugar haciendas.
Industry leaders project a surplus of some 450,000 metric
tons of sugar next year. Already some 150,000 piculs of raw
sugar remain in warehouses, in danger of rotting, a planters
association disclosed.
The sugar was originally intended for food processors
including Dole Philippines which have instead turned to cheaper
imported sugar.
Farm lots. >>Warning of difficult times starting next
year, Gov. Coscolluela urged sugar planters to stave off a
crisis on the plantations by allotting 10 percent of their
farmlands to workers and farmers. A similar measure was
instituted when international market prices declined in the
eighties forcing planters to cut back, if not abandon
production.
Coscolluela said sugar planters should have access to farm
lots by October so they can have food stocks early next year.
Even before problems of oversupply and marketing arose
however, pockets of dissent had already erupted. In the last
quarter, planters complained that a number of sugar centrals
could not deliver the sugar they sent for milling.
Workers in two sugar mills were laid off after sugar
disappeared from the warehouses. Retrenched workers however,
cannot avail themselves of social security benefits because
management had not paid the premiums. The workers were then
protesting against the mill management.
Elsewhere workers who have since taken over idle and
foreclosed land under government's comprehensive agrarian
reform program, complain that landowners have returned with
armed guards and militiamen.
More than a dozen people have been killed in these
haciendas in  Hinobaan town, Bago City, all in southern Negros
and in Manapla, Cadiz City and Sagay in northern Negros.
Gov't Asked To Stop Strikes. <"-5litant workers and
conservative planters and businessmen are at loggerheads too.
Reacting to a series of pickets and strikes  in the city, the
Employers Confederation of Occidental Negros (ECON), issued a
statement asking government agencies to intervene immediately.
ECON members, which include the two largest planters
associations, a major transport company, prawn producers, big
Chinese businessmen, and hotel and restaurant owners, alleged
strikers had "insidious motives."
The action is reminiscent of the anti-communist hysteria
which resulted in the rise in detentions and summary executions
in the late 1980s.
Trade union leaders said most of the strikes were being
undertaken to achieve economic demands.
Even the prawn industry, which brought sunshine after the
fall of sugar prices, is severely stressed. Prawn growers here
are reportedly reeling from an estimated 50 percent cut in
production and sales.
Dependence. <<Social conflicts ignited the war against the
Marcos regime in the late seventies, particularly after
government declared a monopoly on what was then a lucrative
international sugar trade. When prices nose-dived in the
eighties, however, workers and farmers were left without jobs
and malnutrition festered in the farms. Joblessness and hunger
sent many to enlist in the guerilla New People's Army.
Only a massive assistance program during the Marcos and
the Aquino years averted what could have been a major
disaster.#
Cobra-ans/Philippine News and Features
----------------------------------------
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