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By Rhick Lars Vladimer Albay
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ILOILO City – As Swiss Interchurch Aid, or HEKS (Hilfswerk der Evangelischen Kirchen Schweiz) starts to gradually conclude its programs for poor farmers and fishermen in the region, the peasant sectors of Iloilo and Capiz are calling on the government to carry the support and aid to sustain the growth and build on the development in these marginalized areas.
“As HEKS leaves us with a hope for a better, safer, and more fulfilling life, we now look forward to the Philippine government especially the Department of Agrarian Reform and the Department of Agriculture and other concerned agencies to commit itself in continuing what our Swiss partner started three years ago,” said Task Force Mapalad (TFM) – Panay team leader Karen Tuason.
Some 4,000 TFM farmers, fisherfolks and micro-entrepreneurs joined “Padayon sa Pagtindog: Pagtililipon sang mga mangunguma kag mangingisda sa isla sang Panay,” a showcase of local produce in December at the Villareal Stadium in Roxas City to show government agency officials their potential for growth and thank their Swiss partner, HEKS, for the aid and support.
TFM credits HEKS with helping them improve and secure access to land and livelihood, as well as increasing their resilience against natural disasters.
By the end of December 2016, HEKS will be concluding all its projects with TFM, its long-standing partner-organization, and leave the Philippines after four decades of extending help to the country so that it can focus on the pressing needs of other developing nations.
“HEKS helped us place ourselves on the right track. We earnestly hope that the Philippine government, under the Duterte administration, won’t detour from that track and fast-track our journey towards progress and prosperity,” said TFM farmer-leader Teresita Billonid in hiligaynon. Billonid from Pilar, Capiz is also vice president of the Panay Island Farmers’ Association.
Since 2006, HEKS has been helping TFM peasants and farmer-entrepreneurs in fighting poverty and landlessness and promoting social justice.
In December 2013, a month after Panay Island was hit by super typhoon “Yolanda”, HEKS extended its assistance to TFM farmers and fishers in Capiz and Iloilo, which were identified by the World Bank in June 2013 as among the 23 Philippine provinces that were under high risk for disaster.
HEKS-TFM in Panay campaign for the land rights of 1,260 farmers in 45 landholdings in the following five towns: San Dionisio and Carles in Iloilo and Pilar; Pontevedra and Dao in Capiz covering a total area of 1,959 hectares.
HEKS-TFM has spearheaded the securing of land rights for 1,109 small-scale farmers and improving the land tenure of 771 other peasants.
The three-year partnership has also provided training for 1,893 farmers and fisherfolks in improved farming and fishing techniques, including 80 peasant-graduates of intensive farmers’ field schools and the training of 749 individuals in small-scale business management.
But Tuason said that while TFM-HEKS has helped make farmers and fishers more resilient, a stronger safety net is needed from the Philippine government to ensure that what has been started will flourish address the root causes of widespread and persistent rural poverty.
“Our farmers and fishers nourish us. We will go hungry without them. Thus, we have to give what’s due them. We have to make them happy and fulfilled. This can be done if the state will fulfill its mandate to uplift their lives and secure their future,” said Tuason./PN
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