by CWEARC | Jun 1, 2012
“If we are to study closely where the city’s generated waste come from, especially the nonbiodegradable, it is from the export processing zones and big business establishments.” Daisy Bagni of SAMAKANA and ORNUS.
The City of Baguio faces a mammoth problem on how to manage its garbage. The city’s garbage is reaching 130 tons per day (Ramo, Northern Dispatch, 2008) and P20 million (US$479,628.00) is needed by the City for its material recovery facilities (Baguio Midland Courier, 2008). In 2008, the City Government has been spending P20 million (US$479,628.00) per month in hauling garbage to Capaz, Tarlac (Ramo, Northerrn Dispatch, 2008), some 3-4 hour drive from the City.
Avoiding the practice of being wasteful
While in an urban setting, indigenous peoples who are mostly clustered in urban poor communities of Baguio continue to practice their indigenous knowledge systems. One of these is ayyew. Ayyew is a particular term of indigenous peoples in Mountain Province however the concept and practice is common to all indigenous groups in the Cordillera. Each group has their own term for the practice. Ayyew is an expression of value for life, food, land, goods and natural resources in the community. It is an indigenous knowledge and practice of avoiding extravagance and wasteful living, and enabling sharing of resources that the community has. It affixes care for resources and property to enable long period of usage. The value extends to the individual level by sharing what individual community members do not need anymore like clothes, utensils, tools or furniture.
The concept of ayyew in urban poor communities dominated by indigenous peoples and who face a situation of hand-to-mouth existence maybe the reasons for a lesser output of waste or garbage in these communities. According to the Samahan ng Maralitang Nagkakaisa (SAMAKANA) and Organisasyon dagiti Nakurapay nga Umili iti Siyudad (ORNUS), many of the items available in every household in urban poor communities are recycled and re-used like plastic bags, bottles, cans which are the usual throw-away and content of the City’s garbage coming mostly from better off-communities, business establishments, public places like the market and restaurants, tourist destinations like parks and sites. Most of the wastes of urban poor communities are biodegradable which are fed to pigs, commonly raised by indigenous households in urban poor communities.
Pig raising is necessary for most urban poor indigenous households to support rituals and as an additional source of income for households. The concern for sanitation however has become a hindrance for pig-raisers and the City’s health and sanitation office has become more stringent on house hold level pig-raising in the City. This became a big limitation for indigenous households in urban poor communities in earning additional income and in their right to pursue their indigenous knowledge and practices which form part of their integrity and dignity as a distinct people.
Using the concept of ayyew, urban poor households contribute in managing the waste problem of the City by converting the biodegradable waste products of their communities as fertilizers through an innovation that makes use of vermiculture. The fertilizer generated from vermiculture supports a persisting traditional practice of indigenous groups of using every space of land even stone walls, productive for vegetables, medicinal herbs and root crops.
Waste like cans and plastic materials can serve as pots to plant vegetables and herbs fertilized by vermicasts where there is not space for a garden. Pig-raising can thus be tolerated with vermiculture’s contribution in controlling the odor and the manure subsequently will also be an additional source of fertilizer. This contributes to having a supply of healthy and safe vegetables and some supply of medicinal herbs for common illnesses in small backyards and available spaces of households and in common gardens that groups of urban poor women can collectively tend.
The concept of ayyew that is enhanced or innovated by vermiculture was developed by SAMAKANA in 2009. The project concept was inspired from an earlier joint undertaking with the Cordillera Women’s Education Action Research Center Inc. (CWEARC) where urban poor women in Irisan, Baguio City and families of mushroom growers in Shilan, La Trinidad developed backyard gardens which they planted with vegetables, root crops and corn as an additional food source for their families especially during the height of the food crisis in 2008.
The produce from backyard gardens is primarily for family consumption. However, it is sometimes sold in times of dire need for cash by the women. The project encouraged maximization of every available space for vegetable gardening like small plots, flower ports, stone walls and mobilized the community—women, children, men and the elderly, for the maintenance of the gardens. This good experience is applying a traditional agricultural practice among indigenous peoples in the rural areas, in the urban setting. Stocks are shared among indigenous women in urban poor communities and every space is maximized by women to augment food sources in every possible way. Household garbage are recycled as fertilizer for backyard gardens.
With such as an initiative, at least there are 4 urban poor communities which are practicing vegetable gardening that is fertilized by vermicasts. These are UP Village in Irisan, Pinget, San Luis and San Carlos.
In West Quirino Hill, they are claiming that since they started the vermiculture, they are collecting their neighbours’ biodegradable wastes including papers, cartoons, and tissues to be fed to the vermi worms. This has resulted to significant decrease in the community’s generated wastes collected by the city. SAMAKANA claims that as of the moment, 1/3 of Quirino Hill households are already practicing this technology.
Vermiculture as a way to get rid of organic waste and to defend livelihood
In barangay Gibraltar, a member organization of Innabuyog are practicing vermiculture in order to manage both solid and liquid waste coming from their piggeries. It has become their way of defending their livelihood from the threat of closure because of arising complaints from their neighbours due to the foul smell coming from their piggeries.
The hog growers were threatened to close their operation when their neighbours filed a case against them before the City. In order to address this, SAMAKANA collaborated with the barangay officials and the City Environment and Parks Management Office (CEPMO) in introducing the project to help them mitigate the foul smell which was the reason behind the complaints. Trainings were held relative to this case. At present, the case has yet to be decided but the foul smell had been mitigated.
On the other hand, a carrot juice maker is relieved from receiving a lot of complaints of foul smell since she started tending vermiculture.
In West Quirino Hill, vermiculture is an income generating activity for women aside from lessening biodegradable waste. Also, it is an empowering activity for them because even without the intervention of SAMAKANA, women in the said community integrated vermiculture in their backyard gardening. Vermicasts are used as fertilizer for their backyard gardens. Today, most if not all families are helping each other to maintain the vermi-beds and the backyard gardens.
The vermi-cast in the said community is being sold specially when there are trade fairs. The vegetables that they harvested from their backyard gardens help every family by cutting their expenses for food. As migrants coming from the provinces in the region, these women always seek the work they got so used in their former rural communities.
Facing the problem of limited lots to plant in their own yards coupled by demolition threats, the women in West Quirino Hill resort to planting in plant pots or in recycled plastic containers.
In other communities, they are not only planting vegetables but also medicinal plants for colds, fever, cough and other common illnesses.
On the other hand, the beneficiaries asked to be informed on appropriate technology that makes decomposition faster. In line with this, SAMAKANA and CWEARC assisted some of the women leaders in the communities for a cross learning visit to livelihood and waste management projects of the Villar Foundation in
Las Piñas City.
Feasibility of a collective garden
To further strengthen the practice of cooperation through ubbo/innabuyog, SAMAKANA entered into a partnership with Sta. Scholastica Convent through Sr. Alice Sovrevinas. The small garden is part of the Seven Healing Gardens of the Convent. This initiative was also supported by CWEARC in 2009. Three women were assigned to ensure training, project implementation and coordination. At least all of the participants to the collective garden practice backyard gardening in their own homes, 34 of them have enhanced their gardening with vermiculture and 24 are dedicated practitioners.
It was part of the project that every member has specific schedule in tending the collective garden. However, during the actual implementation of the project, the schedule of tending the collective garden was not followed. Based on the assessment of SAMAKANA, this was attributed to the members being pulled out for economic activities specifically for sidewalk vendors. It was then observed that there is a difficulty in sustaining their attendance in the garden work. Maintenance was eventually assumed by organizers of SAMAKANA. Moreover, the expectation on the garden was adjusted. It was resolved that the maintenance will be turned over to the Convent and the garden will continue to serve as a demonstration farm and cross-learning venue for urban poor women on vermiculture. The transfer of Sr. Alice to the National Capital Regional however affected the sustained operation of the garden.
Challenges and lessons learned
The practice of ayyew in growing vegetables in the traditional way in the urban setting and enhanced by vermiculture is truly a good innovation by SAMAKANA. This enhancement or innovation was made possible with technical support from institutions like CWEARC and the Sta. Catalina Convent. At the household level, this is proven effective. Each practitioner makes use of all available space in their home yards including stone walls which they planted with sweet potato or camote. The limited space they have at their backyards is expanded by making use of cans and plastics as receptacles to plant vegetables such as pechay, beans and other vegetables that are grown easily. In this sense, urban poor practitioners are able to recycle and re-use cans and plastics as planting receptacles. Organic wastes generated from their kitchen are converted as fertilizers with the aid of vermiculture. Generally, they are proud to share that the small harvest they get from their household gardens lessen their budget for vegetables. Additionally, they are sure of the safety of these vegetables as they have grown these themselves. Some of them proudly share that they even share some of their vegetables with their neighbours.
One continuing challenge that SAMAKANA face with its members is the change in mindset in accepting vermiculture as an effective technology. SAMAKANA admits that some of its members find the worms gross, some of the women hardly remove their doubt of these worms being pests. Hence, it is important that cross-learning among practitioners with those who are not yet convinced on the technology, need to be a sustained effort. Cristy Ngolab and Daisy Bagni, who are among the leaders of SAMAKANA and active vermiculture practitioners say that the exchange of ideas and learnings among urban poor women enable them to explain the basic science in this experience.
“Maysa gayam a karirigatan iti kastoy a trabaho ket ti panangingato iti kaamuan dagiti nakurapay nga umili a saan nga amin nga egges ket peste,” (One of the hardest thing to do in this
endeavor is to raise the awareness of the urban poor communities that not all worms are pests) Bagni shared. It is easier she added to tell the people to strengthen their indigenous knowledge and practice in waste management because they are already doing it while vermiculture is something very new to them. Thus, she further pointed out that they had to raise the peoples’ appreciation towards the importance of the said worms.
Other members of SAMAKANA are actually raising vermiworms or the African night crawlers as a source of income. According to SAMAKANA, this is good on one side however they also clarify that their concept of innovating traditional gardening with vermiculture is not primarily production for the market but production to strengthen the indigenous knowledge of ayyew and cooperation therefore contributing to waste reduction and management, and enhancing home-based produced vegetables. It was also originally conceptualized that the vermiworms are shared to your neighbours so that the idea of it as a system for waste management and enhancing home-based produced vegetables will be spread at community levels.
The tendency of members who already went into marketing their vermicasts or fertilizers and African crawlers think more of the income than sustaining the practice of homebased vegetables and sharing. Sharing of worms has become less easy to do when practitionerscum-producers are thinking primarily of the income they will generate. With this as a challenge, SAMAKANA will have to study further how its members should balance income generation vis sharing their worms more widely so that the practice becomes a community endeavour.
The idea of keeping a collective garden which they demonstrated in the space at Sta. Catalina Convent, is definitely good. Based on SAMAKANA’s assessment, there are important considerations to note in running collective gardens in an urban setting. One is the distance from the communities of the members of the association. Urban poor women members have to travel one or two rides to get to the Convent. Collective gardens are best if they are near their own communities. The limitation is when there is no common space in their respective communities that urban poor women may request management from local government officials or private owners.
In this case, the urban poor women’s organization will also pursue in getting local government support for their initiative. Second is the right timing of schedules in consideration of the daily economic activities of the members. Schedules of tending or maintenance which is assigned by group or cluster can also be optimized for organizational meetings and trainings. Like how it turned out in the experience, SAMAKANA will have to determine key persons to be monitoring the collective garden in between schedules of tending and maintaining. If collective gardens are not possible in their communities due to space constraint, then garden management is best done at household levels with more opportunities of experience sharing or cross-learning.
by CWEARC | Sep 2, 2011
Introduction
Indigenous communities are basically agricultural or peasant communities. An important indicator telling of change in an indigenous peasant women’s life is her family’s harvest or agricultural produce. In the phenomenon of climate change, an indigenous peasant woman would refer to a decrease to her family’s harvest to describe the environmental changes. Hence, it is important for every indigenous peasant woman to be keen of her family’s produce or harvest. This is a knowledge she learned from her long engagement of the land and the environment. Her tutors in agriculture production- her parents, fore parents, community elders and experts in traditional agriculture, who are usually women, taught her of the conditions of a particular land area her family or village tills, what care is required , what crops are suitable and the suitable or viable production cycle. She knows how many bundles of rice are produces per paddy and how long the harvest normally lasts.
The factor which could create a variable in their harvest are pests, water supply or irrigation and weather conditions like droughts, strong rains and typhoons. The stories that indigenous peasant women tell show these factors had always been treated as natural and so it was also natural for the farmers to adjust. In the process, they as farmers learn to cope up with the environmental changes. They develop innovations and corresponding adjustments or changes in their agricultural practices, develop new varieties of crops and innovated to maintain productivity. All these were part of their indigenous knowledge on agricultural production and bio-diversity management.
The last two centuries are hallmarked with great strides in technology, production and the standards of living, but these advances were achieved by the lopsided and illogical use and abuse of the world’s resources, which are mostly concentrated in indigenous territories. Abuse of the resources were done for the benefit of a few and to the detriment of the many, most especially the tenders and stewards of these resources.
At the forefront of this injustice are insatiable giant corporations of capitalist or northern countries whose relentless pursuit for profits demand the command of vast energy and natural resources. This arrangement led to massive environmental destruction and resources wars aside from massive environmental destruction and resource wars aside from massive dispossession and impoverishment of large numbers of peoples all over the world.
The last two centuries of increasing emissions and ecological destruction coincide with the two centuries of worsening economic inequality between and within the countries- the increasing concentration of wealth to a narrow global elite, colonial and neo-colonial subordination of countries, corporate takeover and exploitation of natural and productive resources of the south, loss of economic and policy sovereignty of southern countries to powerful and multilateral institutions as the world bank (WB), international monetary fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The system that has resulted in climate change is the same system behind structural poverty underdevelopment, which magnifies the vulnerability of millions, especially indigenous peoples, who have little or no responsibility for causing climate change (Lauron, People’s Movement on Climate Change 2010).
The United Nations intergovernmental Panel on climate change (UNFCCC) reported in 2007a steady increase in green-house gas (GHG) emissions due to human activities – from 70 percent between 1970 and 2004. Additional studies have highlighted the compounding negative impact of global warming on human livelihoods in the context of the global food and energy crisis. These include dwindling crop yields in most tropical and sub-tropical regions, decreased availability of water in many water – scarce regions, desertification and land degradation processes, change in rainfall patterns, rising sea levels, dwindling natural resource productivity and in some cases, irreversible loss of biodiversity (Kelkar,2009).
Climate change cannot be ignored as this impact seriously on the planet’s life. The adverse impacts of climate change are compounding the long-standing development crises confronting the mass of humanity. Negotiations on solutions to the climate crises are made on various levels by governments yet hardly that solutions are reached to alleviate small producers adversely affected by the climate occurring.
Their slogan remains to be “business as usual” and their greed for profit is evident in their push for market-based solutions. The presence of World Bank and giant corporations in climate talks and negotiations would tell the intentions. The drivers of the global capitalist systems is notably exploiting the climate crisis to develop, legitimize and enforce self-serving solutions that create new profit opportunities, and sustain and expand corporate power over natural resources, production and energy systems, funds and technologies.
The greatest injustice is that the peoples most involved in ecological or environmental balance and sustainability are the ones who are made to bear the worst impacts every day of their lives.
Indigenous peasants are still manage to cope and make the necessary adjustments being when asked, their common response resilient survivors. When asked, their common response is that indeed they are able to make the necessary adjustments but they do admit that their capacity to cope is becoming more difficult. Their coping mechanisms can no longer match the survival level for unprecedented loss or decline in their produce as a result of climate change. It is also crucial to note that the coping or solution required in a fast-changing situation of environment or climate cannot simply be on an individual level. Indigenous peasant women agree that solutions can only be arrived at when they are part of the solutions as they are the ones who suffer gravely of any loss or decline in harvest.
The urgent concern of rural and indigenous women is to address the climate crises and to look at how the dominant socio-economic system has breached ecological limits and destabilized the planet’s climate. Mitigation and adaptation measures detached from context and development aspirations of rural and indigenous women renege on commitments to biodiversity and sustainable development.
by CWEARC | Nov 1, 2006
Historically, women in the Philippines held high status in society. We were Babaylans and katalonans (priestesses) then, who were very much revered and involved in the political, economic and social spheres of life. We were also central in the affairs of the clan, in production and decision-making. If there were at all laws or codes to speak of during these times, we were definitely part of the process and the results.
However, this status changed over time as we were influenced and controlled by Islamic laws and the colonial laws of Spain, America and even Japan. The making of laws was irrefutably reflective of our social context and space. For one, the issues of divorce, mobility, and property ownership for women which were recognized during pre-colonial times were radically changed by the Spanish Law that ultimately controlled and placed women in a subordinate position. Basically patterned after the Roman law, we inherit up to this day these biases against women from the Spaniards.
But history has also proven that today’s laws on women have somehow advanced to reflect the real issues and needs of women. The respect for women’s rights was reflected in Kartilya ng Katipunan at the turn of the century. Women’s role in politics has been recognized which is partially attributable to the Philippine suffragette movement. Today’s laws on labor, rape, sexual harassment, sex trafficking, anti-violence against women and many other were results of painstaking advocacy of the Philippine women’s movement.
“A harvest of laws,” is how lawyer Evalyn Ursua, a staunch women’s rights lawyer, referred to laws enacted as a product of the country’s women’s movement. She further asserted that these laws were borne out of the struggles of the women’s movement.
While these laws can be appreciated as concrete gains of the women’s movement, we cannot rely solely on these gains for the defense of women’s rights. For laws are nothing without action. Laws are not always equal to the justice system. Laws become toothless when the powerful and the moneyed class can buy their way out of the many injustices and violence committed against women and children. Worse, laws can be instruments of the state to further degrade and oppress women and children.
Violence against women and children continue to rise despite the existence of these legislation. These laws can be deemed futile for as long as the feudal, patriarchal and bourgeois culture is still very much embedded in our system.
It is for these reasons that the Philippine women’s movement needs to continue its efforts in reclaiming a truly just society, not only through legislative reforms, but through challenging the different social institutions that perpetuate injustice. This can be done through awareness-raising, organizing of women, community consciousness-raising towards prevention of violations and respect and promotion of human rights and women’s rights.
by CWEARC | Mar 8, 2005
Introduction
The Philippines is the number one labor exporting country in the world today. As of 2004, there were approximately 8.2 million Filipinos scattered in 182 countries all over the world. An estimated 4,010 Filipino workers leave he country each in search for jobs and greener pastures abroad. In 2004, OFW remittances amounted to US15-16 billion (ILO Data, 2005), contributing almost half of the countries gross domestic product (GDP). The cordillera region has the third highest number of OFWs of all regions in the Philippines, of whom 77% are women.
It is therefore not surprising that the widespread migration of Filipinos to other countries is an issue close to the hearts and stomachs of millions of Filipinos. It is not farfetched to believe that each Filipino family has a relative, friend or acquaintance working abroad. Each day, we hear and face various issues and problems of OFWs in our own homes, workplaces, offices, schools, market, communities, as well as in the media.
Yet, not many of us fully understand the issue of migration and the factors that push Filipinos to work abroad. There are those who still believe that going abroad is due to a high ambition in life, or that it is a trait of Filipinos to be adventurous and to want to see the world. But it is now becoming clear that poverty and unemployment are the main reason for migration- a forced migration of desperate people, who are being sold, commercialized all over the world by our own government.
This research on the situation of overseas Filipino workers from the cordillera was conducted by the cordillera women’s education and resource center (CWERC) in 2002 in order to know more about the actual conditions of women OFWs and their families in the region. Case studies were done in selected communities, secondary date were gathered from government and non-government sources, and documentation of particular cases of individual victims was done, including the toll it has taken on families of OFWs.
The research also aims to present the historical context, which led to the widespread migration of Filipinos, and the role of the government in encouraging such migration. The research further shows that there are major contradictions between the labor export policy (LEP) of government and its professed role to protect the rights and welfare of Filipino migrant workers and their families.
With this issue of Kali on “Filipino Women Migrant Workers: Commodities for Export”, we expose the issue of labor export and forced migration, we sympathize with the many OFWs who are victims of maltreatment, abuse and violence, and salute the millions of migrant workers who are the unsung Filipino heroes of today.
by CWEARC | Jul 1, 2003
Foreword
The Cordillera Women’s Education and Resource Center (CWERC) takes pride in announcing the birth of its first anthology of women’s literary and visual arts through its journal KALI. The time is ripe for the unfolding and sharing of women’s creativity and rich interpretation of the various facets of the people’s struggle in the region, and the country in general. The wellspring of people’s literature is the people’s struggle itself.
Through the years, the women’s movement in the Cordillera has not only continuously developed and honed women activists. It has likewise created a generation of chroniclers not only of the women’s struggle but of the people’s movement as well.
The actual involvement of writers and artists in the struggle for social change is the very material that is immortalized through literature, music and the visual arts. The victorious struggle against the Chico Dam development project was an inspiration to many and continues to motivate women writers and artists to draw parallelisms with contemporary struggles against development aggression. The pain and destruction wrought by imperialist incursion compounded by militarization is etched in the psyche of thousands of women in the Cordillera countryside but through poetry, music and sketches the collective experience is transformed into a sharper and resolute commitment to continue the anti-fascist and anti-imperialist struggle of the militant women’s movement.
A woman organizer is a cultural worker. She joins picketlines and barricades against capitalist exploitation in Lepanto Mines. She treks trails and mountainsides in Dalupirip, Itogon or the remotest sitio in Kalinga and Abra to understand the myriad issues and situations. To be able to motivate other women and the rest of the oppressed and exploited masses to get involved and act for their themselves entails a painstaking process of touching the consciousness and the spirit. Thus capturing through poetry, songs and colors the issues and problems that ail the people becomes an instrument in heightening awareness, arousing the reader or audience to take action.
The anthology showcases Cordillera-based women writers and artists. But a section has also been assigned to other writers and composers outside the region whose words embody the principles and aspirations of the militant women’s movement in the region.
This anthology is for all the people who tirelessly give the women’s movement the inspiration to pursue the struggle and the vision for a truly free and democratic society. And this shall not end here. The anthology of the people’s struggle is voluminous. This is but an initial contribution.
by CWEARC | Jun 1, 2001
Introduction
Women workers are among the most hardworking and productive forces in Philippine society. They work for many hours on end, in factories, firms, service establishments or plantations, in order to produce commodities and services from which capitalists earn their profits. Yet they can be said to be among the most exploited, hardly earning enough for their own and their families’ subsistence. They receive meager wages, usually below the legally mandated minimum wage, are often deprived of the benefits to which workers are entitled, and are denied their rights as workers to job security and to self-organization. In addition, they are discriminated against and oppressed as women, victims of a society which views women as inferior beings, as objects of entertainment, and as subjects of domination.
This second issue of CWERC’s journal KALI: Voice of Cordillera Women brings to you the situation of the women workers in the Cordillera today. It features women workers in two factories in the Baguio City Export Processing Zone where labor contractualization has become not just a trend, but the norm among the foreign-owned companies in the zone.
As understood by many, labor contractualization refers to the temporary or short-term work by a laborer. Thus, a contractual worker is one who has no regular work and has no security of tenure. As a contractual worker, he or she is denied the wages and benefits of regular workers. He or she receives lower wages and no benefits, thereby increasing the rate of his or her exploitation.
Labor contractualization has many forms and faces. It is seen when workers are considered as contractuals, casuals or apprentices when in fact they do the work of regular workers. It occurs when contractual workers are directly hired by the capitalist or are agency-hired by a labor-only contractor. Or when the employer is a subcontractor or concessionaire, his workers are contractuals and are paid daily, per piece or for every job order. Then you can have contractual workers or “permanent casuals” who are still considered casual workers despite having worked for more than the legally required 180 days to become regular workers.
Labor contractualization negates almost all the labor laws and policies which have been won through long, bitter and bloody struggles of the workers throughout our history.
It allows capitalists to relegate workers to a position of enslavement by depriving them of job security and of all the rights of workers. It therefore has the overall effect of pulling down the wage level of the whole working class.
The research and case studies of labor contractualization presented here, give us a graphic illustration of the plight of women contractual workers and the hardships they have to endure. They portray the image of the woman worker: exploited yet resilient. Oppressed yet struggling for the well-being and dignity she deserves.
