Pulang Lupa: Published work, Philippine Collegian 2004-2005
konting info
Former President Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino was one who ratified Republic Act no. 6657 of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), which stipulates the implementation of the Stock Distribution Option (SDO). The SDO is one option under Chapter 8, Section 31 of CARP wherein corporations owning or managing agricultural lands are given permission to "voluntarily distribute part of their capital stocks to legitimate beneficiaries." Under her administration, farmers launched massive protests against her land reform policies which culminated in teh Mendiola massacre, where 13 farmers were killed in a violent dispersal.
The University of the Philippines Law Center submitted a proposition paper in June 1990 to the Senate Agrarian Reform Committee denouncing the SDO as unconstitutional.
In the profit-sharing scheme under SDO, farm workers are to recieve 3 percent gross sales annually. With 219 million declared gross per year, this would amount to a measly PHP 941 a year for every farm worker.
Total of qualified SDO beneficiaries: 6,296
Stocks to be distributed to qualified beneficiaries according to SDO: PHP 118 million (33.296 percent of the outstanding capital stocks. To be distributed within 30 years, according to the number of days they have worked [mandays])
Number of workers: 3,500 (rotated every 37 days)
Average number of mandays per year (of 3500 workers rotated every 37 days): 150 days
Wage of a farm worker (for once a week's work): PHP 194.50
Daily minimum wage (in Central Luzon): PHP 224.00
Average take home wage minus deductables: PHP 9.50
[Hacienda Luicita, Tarlac, Central Luzon, Philippines. May 2005.]
