Case 4: “The Priceless Treasure”

The respondent is 58 years old, female, married with 5 children. She started working in

Hacienda in a year 1980 – 2004. This was her first job when she was a child, because her parents

also work here. While she was studying at college, this was her part time job, whenever she was

off school, she devoted her time to the hacienda, what she does here is to clean and cut sugarcane

and sometimes he also grazes animals.

According to the respondent she stopped studying and focused only on working in the

hacienda and so that her younger siblings can go to school. This is also where she met her

husband. And eventually formed their own family. They both work in the hacienda, and this is

their main source of income for their daily life expenses. And because of the hacienda, they were

able to send their children to school. Because according to her, their children were given a stub, a

small piece of paper and this this will serve as their payment for the jeep on their way to school

instead of paying money.

When the time came, when work at the hacienda stopped, their children stopped studying

in high school and chose to look for work outside. When her children were working, he was

given money from their salary to start a small “sari-sari” store in their house. Because her

husband got sick, she couldn't work outside, so their small shop served as their main source of

income. This served as their weapon to continue through the hardships of life.

According to the respondent, the Department of Agrarian Reform has distributed to

farmers more than one hundred hectares of land in Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac. Apart from the

land that they got separately, they also received a lot for them to build their home. his children

managed the land and planted rice and corn. the problem here is that they have no knowledge of
farming. She is grateful because the Department of Agrarian has a free seminar on how to plant

rice and how to operate the machines that will be used in the crops.

Her children continued to plant and take care of the land and they earned 200 thousand in

one harvest. and their income will serve as their expenses for 4 months. Because the next harvest

is after another 4 months, but the income is not always that big, sometimes they lose money and

get into debt. That's why her children are thinking of selling it, but she didn't want to agree

because according to her it was their wealth until death. And they can even pass it on to their

grandchildren. Apart from their own cost of the land, according to her Department of Agrarian

has not stopped giving free fertilizer for their crops, but it is not enough for four months so they

will spend and will continue to spend, she said the benefit is also theirs, so their foundation is

only sacrifice. But she hopes that the Department of Agriculture will hear them to increase the

fertilizers they receive, because farmers like them should be heard by the government, she added.

Their life has been smooth but because her husband was sick, her children are still

thinking of selling it. She was appealing this decision because when the money is sold and used

up, where will they be taken from. According to her there are businessmen who buy their land

worth millions of pesos, but she didn't budge because she said their land was worthless because

they would benefit from it for life. So, she encourages others not to sell their land because it is

their real treasure in life, she concluded.