(Speech delivered at the International Consultation of the World Council of Churches- Women and Globalization Program entitled: Women’s Voices on Alternative Globalization Addressing People and Earth (AGAPE), held in Antipolo City, Philippines, on August 27-29, 2004)
By: Zenaida Soriano and Teresita Vistro
AMIHAN, National Federation of Peasant Women - Philippines

Zenaida Soriano is the vice chairperson of the Amihan, National Federation of Peasant Women, and also its spokesperson; Teresita Vistro is the National Programs Coordinator

Sisters, friends, Good Morning!

It is indeed a great privilege speaking to you today. We would like to thank the women at the WCC for giving us the opportunity to present our visions on an issue that is at the very core of our lives and existence as women producers of food and other basic necessities for life: Fair Trade!

Trade is People. It is peoples’ activity meant to ensure that products and services are accessible for people, a people’s activity of exchange of goods and services which could be a propelling factor for the progress of people. But the promised road to progress via trade is dangerously veering not towards the betterment of the lives of people, but rather its destruction. This is because the producers of products and services for trade, the very people without which there could be no trade that could take place, are imperiled of displacement, and are suffering from hunger and poverty.

And this is precisely accomplished by the current international trading regimen imposed on poor countries by the World Trade Organization. But what really does the WTO do to the lives of the peasant women and their families? Allow us focus on the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) provision of the WTO to illustrate the point.

The AoA covers four major agreements which are deleterious to the interest of the poor farmers: the market access, export subsidy and withdrawal of production support, and sanitary and phyto sanitary standards. Briefly, the market access provisions stipulates the tarrification of all products for trade and the removal of non tariff systems such as quantitative restrictions and quotas, which could pose as barrier to trade, the second is the removal of government subsidies for exports and also for the producers and the harmonization of sanitary and phytosanitary measures based on international standards. It seems just and fine at a glance. And that was also exactly how they packaged these provisions: these provisions will make the playing field equal for all countries. The market access provision and the removal of domestic subsidies are the crucial provisions for the small Filipino farmers. The removal of restrictions on foreign agricultural products’ entry into our market, would spell the bankruptcy of the small Filipino farmers, as they can never compete with the cheap, and highly subsidized crops from other countries. The withdrawal of domestic subsidies’ provision is also a bane as the government is unable to provide the needed subsidy of the small farmers. As per WTO requirement, the country is still allowed to provide up to a ceiling o f 10% subsidy but because the government is bankrupt and corrupt, it is able to provide only up to 5% subsidy. This has left the small farmers in the Philippines in the cold: no subsidies, backward farming technologies, while being demanded to fight the well equipped and well supported and prosperous farmers mostly in rich countries.

The Philippine government even added some frills to the package to make it more palatable to the Filipinos. According to the government, the Philippines will enjoy the following benefits from the AoA of the WTO:1) P11 billion annual profits from agricultural exports ;2) 3.4 billion agricultural surplus; 3) 500,000 additional jobs each year.

Its almost a decade now since the Marrakesh document took effect, and the Philippine agricultural horizon is like a land overrun by hordes that destroyed everything leaving only desolation in their wake.

Instead of the promised surplus in agriculture, the reverse occurred. From 1990-1994, the Philippine agricultural trade registered a trade surplus amounting to US$1.2B. However, after its entry to the WTO in 1995, agricultural trade registered an accumulated trade deficit amounting to US$5.2B from 1995 to 2001.

Also, our capacity to produce our own food was threatened, our food security greatly weakened. This is shown in the increased importation of our basic staple food such as rice and corn. From 1994-1998, rice importation increased by 540%, while corn importation increased by 520%.

Employment in agriculture has continuously decreased for both males and females, but more alarming for females.(see figure 1)

Figure 1. Percentage of persons employed in agriculture by sex, 1980-2000

Source: World Bank

Women are very vulnerable in the destruction brought about by the WTO. Even before the implementation of the WTO, women are already in a miserably discriminated. Half of the labor force are women however, barely half are employed.[see table 1]

TABLE 1. Rural Labor Force Participation Rate According to Sex, 1995-2001 (%)

Source: Joseph Lim, Macroeconomic and Disaggregated Trends in Employment and Labor Force Participation

And if they are lucky to be employed at all, majority are employed as unpaid family labor, defined by the government as members of the family who assist another member in the operation of the family farm or business enterprise and who do not receive wage or salary for their work.[see figure 2]

With the WTO, this gender bias in the agricultural labor market worsened. More and more women are driven out of agriculture.

Unable to find jobs in the formal agricultural labor, and displaced from their lands because of bankruptcy and massive land use conversions into other uses, women are forced to find off farm jobs in the informal sector. Jobs which are low paying, involving long hours of work, like doing laundry, selling food, working as house helps, working as waitresses cum entertainers in beer houses and other entertainment establishments, which has mushroomed in the rural areas, and where a kind of trade has undoubtedly flourished: the flesh trade.

The situation have even engendered a shifting value of children of peasant families, long treasured as extra hands in the farms. Daughters and even young wives have assumed a special value. Pretty and good looking daughters for example, are specially taken cared of (i.e. they are not allowed to work in the farms as their skin/complexion might darken, not allowed to do household chores as these may blemish their skins and make their hands rough, etc.) as they are being prepared for a job in Japan or married off to foreign men. While there could be positive experiences of young girls married off to foreigners, achieving better lives, a lot have gone through tragic experiences. There are even cases, where children sent off with recruiters, with a promise of good job and pay in Manila , were no longer located and accounted by their parents.

Indeed, the destructive effects of the WTO trade regimen worked in synergy with existing societal biases against women effecting great damage to the lives of women and their children and further exacerbating women’s oppression and exploitation.

Women and men occupy different positions and roles in the agricultural economy and in the society in general with the balance of the burden tilting heavily on the women, specifically the poor women. Without addressing this reality, any kind of trade or for that matter all economic activities, will be detrimental to women and the imbalance will only be reproduced over and over, leaving women as impoverished as ever, if not more. For trade therefore to be just, sustainable and caring for women:

1. Trade must not displace women from their sources of livelihood and must not emasculate their role as nurturers and providers of food for their children and their families.

   Take the case of rice production where peasant women play a key role performing such tasks as planting, weeding, transplanting and harvesting. With the deluge of cheap imported rice into our market, rice farming is slowly becoming non viable, and it goes with it the various farm jobs that the women are performing. Furthermore, with their displacement from the direct production of rice, the staple food of Filipino families, so is their control of their source of food, in this case rice, weakened.

   This threat in fact is imminent as the Philippine government is set to comply in 2005, the total elimination of quantitative restriction on rice, corn and other staple food as per provision of the WTO agreement. Currently the Philippines is on a so called maximum access volume ( MAV ) programme, where the country is required to import a minimum amount of the staple, even when there is surplus in the local production. But even with this program, which requires us to import only a minimum of 28,650 MT gradually increasing to 142,000 MT in 2004, the Philippines already imported up to as high as 739,428 MT in 2001 and 1,238,366 MT in 2002.

2. For trade to work for the benefit of the people and most especially for the women, their access and control to the basic resources for livelihood particularly the land must be ensured. Landlessness is the primary problem of the Filipino peasants, half of whom are women and comprise 70% of the population. Sixty (60) percent of the total agricultural lands are controlled by only 13% of the population leaving seven (7) out of 10 farmers landless. This situation forces the farmers to enter into exploitative arrangements with landlords, such as exorbitant land rents or sharing systems going as high as 70-30 or 60-40 all in favor of the landlords. In coconut plantations for example, the prevailing sharing systems is the 70-30, where 70% of the total harvest goes to the landlord and the remaining 30% goes to the farmer. This translates to a daily earnings of P39.00 or US$0.70, way below the government’s recommended daily cost of living for a family of five in the rural areas which is P398.00 (US$7.25) per day. But coconut and its by products, coconut oil and meat is one of the top agricultural exports of the country, contributing millions of dollars for the country and profits for the landlords, the traders and the exporters, while the direct producer, the farmer is left miserable and poor.

   Not yet pleased with the state of landlessness of millions of Filipino farmers, the government even exempted vast tracks of agricultural lands for coverage in its land reform program, lands which would be devoted or use in the cultivation of products for export or what it call high value crops for export. Lands which could have been distributed to landless peasants were lost in thin air. In the drive to be able to produce products for trade in the international market, landlords converted their lands for the cultivation of export crops, displacing millions of peasants and their families from their lands they have and their forefathers tilled for years.

   We believe that a genuine land reform, where lands will be distributed to the actual tillers of the land, the millions of peasant men and women will propel a dynamic and strong agriculture production economy that will generate in sustained manner the needs of the people as well as the surplus products for trade. Moreover, this will also act as the sound base that will provide the raw material for a genuine industrialization of our country.

3. Trade should protect the local food sources as primarily used for the people’s consumption, and the protection of the lands where these foods are grown. Must not destroy the food security of a community. We believe that the basic principle should be that: we trade our surplus, and that the proceeds must be used to buy what we need that is not locally available in our communities. And that our governments focus should be strengthening our capacity to produce our own products. Food security must mean the availability of food and strengthening our capacity to produce our own food. Totally in contradiction with the framework and concept of our government on food security, which is mere availability of food, whether it comes from the local sources or outside sources.

4. Trade must result to the development of the so called productive forces, the real producers of food and other products for trade: development of their livelihood, improvement of their health, their educational level, their organizations. For women, trade must not become an instrument for driving the women into greater poverty and misery. Trade must become an instrument for the empowerment of the poor women.

   We believe that the WTO trade regime in collaboration with our present government can never become an instrument for making trade just, sustainable and caring for women.

Particularly for agriculture, our immediate demand is to take WTO out of our agriculture. Before the establishment of the WTO, agriculture was never included in multilateral trade agreements. We believe it too dangerous for agriculture, the source of food and livelihood of millions of people, to be subjected to international trading rules. To our government, we demand that its efforts should be directed towards developing and strengthening our capacity to produce our food and other needs through the implementation of a genuine agrarian reform program and pursue a genuine national industrialization. We then trade based on the strength and capacity of our producers, the peasant men and women to produce the needs of the Filipino people. Moreover, we should trade based on mutual benefit and and respectful of the right of countries to determine their trade policies beneficial for their people.

Rural Women building alternatives and initiating changes in the face of the havoc unleashed by the WTO and globalization

The situation is far from hopeless for the rural women as we in Amihan, do not take these developments sitting down. In various chapters of Amihan in the three major islands of the country, various initiatives are being undertaken to counter the onslought of the WTO trade regimen on their lives.

In 32 provinces in the country, there exists organizations of peasant women, and other rural women under the Amihan, National Federation of Peasant Women. Through their organizations, these women are undertaking different programmes and self help projects, all for the objective of working for the betterment of their lives, and their families.

In the chapters of Amihan in Bohol , peasant women have taken the lead in organizing their communities, and in undertaking various economic activities to increase their incomes. They have initiated the production of vegetables, and the planting and processing/formulation of herbal medicines for the consumption of their communities. They also taught nutrition education among the mothers and held feeding programs in their communities there malnutrition among children was a problem. Trainings on basic medical processes were also undertaken, giving the women skills on basic dental extraction, minor surgery, first aid, etc. Through a savings programme of the organization and with some help from outside sources, they were able to set up a training center and a library, which is also being used as venue for their nutrition education feeding program.

In Pampanga, the land occupation of the members of Amihan on 29 hectare Laxamana estate is holding on despite numerous harassments and threats from the landlord. With their hold on the land, they are able to turn the lands productive, and is a continuing source of food and livelihood for the peasant families.

In Naic, Cavite, south of Manila, five barangay chapters( Malainen Bago, Labac, Munting Mapino, Bagong Kalsada, Palangui Central)) of Amihan are operating village drug stores, and selling medicines, mostly herbal, to the communities at affordable prices. The proceeds of these undertaking are used for the activities of their organizations, trainings and organizational meetings and also including medical missions.

In Montalban, Rizal east of Metro Manila,in one of the areas being organized by Amihan, Sipac Maly, the peasant families are battling the effects of the quarrying operations of a corporation around their community which is causing pollution and affecting the health of the families. Also with the quarrying operations, the sources of their water and irrigation have been contaminated, greatly reducing their production and harvest by 50%. The source of water for their drinking and other household use is also contaminated which had made life even more difficult for women, as they now have to walk long distances just to be able to get clean water.

Also in Lubog, still in another community in the same municipality, the peasant families being organized by Amihan are resisting attempts of former generals and military personnels, and even government officials to grab their lands which they have cultivated and tilled since way back. And as they continue their resistance to these landgrabbers, they continue making the land productive, and is a continuing source of their food and other necessities.

At the national level, the effects of the WTO regimen on the peasant women have long been our advocacy issue. In 1992, three years before the formation of the World Trade Organization, we already raised our voices against the GATT . Also in the same year, we convened an Asian Peasant Women Dialogue on the GATT and the Structural Adjustment Programs of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In that conference we declared that:

“ The GATT and the Structural adjustment programs(SAPs) imposed by the IMF are present day mechanisms of the rich countries particularly the United States to maintain, expand and intensify extraction of profits from our countries at the expense of our poor people, especially rural women.

As producers, home managers and community organizers, we Asian women are the frontline casualties of the SAPs and the GATT .

GATT and SAPs are depleting our food sources, are making us slaves to MNCs for our seeds and other agricultural inputs, are eroding what meager income we have, are forcing us to work longer and harder. SAPs and GATT mean hunger and malnutrition, the deterioration of our health and that of our families. In many instances, SAPs and the GATT have forcibly created single-parent households because of the death of our spouses from illnesses or repression or because of their departure from our villages or countries in search of jobs overseas. SAPs and GATT mean additional physical, emotional and psychological stress for us as we balance our economic, mothering and household roles. SAPs and GATT have increased the violence we suffer: as battered wives within our households, as harassed community activists, as women who have to prostitute ourselves in our countries or overseas to ear for our families.”

We have been active since, locally, regionally in Asia and internationally in exposing the evils of the free trade espoused by the GATT , and now the WTO.

Also, in June of this year, we convened another Asian conference on peasant women’s land rights and globalization. In the conference statement we declared:

“We comprise the majority of the landless poor, 51% of the total female population in the region are employed in agriculture and we produce 60% of the food for the Asian region, yet our right to land continue to be denied.

As our right to land is continuously denied, so is our right to decent lives. As our rights are denied, so is our children's right to a healthy lives and therefore of the lives of future generations.

We particularly condemn and fight the policies of liberalization, deregulation and privatization of the WTO which worsened and intensified landlessness, poverty and hunger. These policies not only denied us of our right to land and jobs but also denied us equal access to resources, proper health care and education. Imperialist globalization also continues to endanger and threaten our food security and sovereignty as a result of its continued plunder of our agriculture and economies.”

We are currently in the process of formation of an alliance of women opposed to the WTO. Named “Kababaihan sa Kanayunan Kontra sa WTO at Globalisasyon”, it can roughly be translated to English as Women Weaving a World free from WTO and Globalization or WWW@WTO and Globalization.. Initially we will be focusing on the issue of the protection of our rice, corn and other agricultural products of small farmers in the Philippines.Particularly for rice, we are preparing for strong protest and lobbying actions against the set date for the removal of quantitative restrictions on our rice in January, 2005.

And while protesting and launching actions, we are already building alternatives. At the national level, we are running a direct producer to consumer marketing of organic products program. The products that we trade range from grain products such as rice and corn, indigenous vegetables produced organically by women peasants, various root crops, beans and spices and herbal plants. In the Philippines , we still have hundreds of indigenous species of plants for food consumption, and which has not yet been subjected to genetic manipulation. For rice, the communities and the peasant families we are organizing has still in their possession at least 50 different varieties of mountain rice, and which we are trying very hard to keep and preserve.

These initiatives are still tiny drops in a bucket, but in time, and with the determination of the poor rural women to create a better society for our children, we will surely prevail.