"I have chosen the road less traveled and hopefully the younger generation can learn from my story. I could have chosen to live an ordinary and simple life of a farmer. Instead I chose a different route - serving the Filipino masses, especially peasants, and leading them to struggle for genuine agrarian reform and freedom", stated Estrelita "Ka Lita" Mariano, a prominent peasant woman leader in the Philippines.
Estrelita " Ka Lita" Mariano, 48, came from a poor peasant family in Nueva Ecija. Like a normal peasant family, she grew up taking care of her younger brothers and sisters, washing and ironing clothes, cleaning the house, washing the dishes, going to market, weeding and planting in the farm. Name it and she had done it, she lives up to her sector's way of life.
Poor and landless
"We were not ashamed of being poor", Ka Lita told us. Like the majority of farmers in the Philippines, our family is landless. Out of every 100 farmers, 21 are agricultural workers, 28 are unpaid family workers, 26 are under some form of tenancy relation and only 25 own land. In short, more than 7 out of 10 farmers do not own the land they till. On the other hand, only a few families are controlling vast tracts of lands. Sixty percent of the agricultural lands are owned by 13% of the landowners. The biggest landlords, only 9,500 people, own more than 20% of all agricultural land in the country.
We were bound by feudal and semi-feudal relations of exploitation as tenants of Rafael Rueda, a landlord in our province. We still till the land like our forefathers did. We use simple tools like the plow, sickle, harrow, cutlass, and carabaos. Mechanization is limited in our province and in many places in the country almost non-existent. Most farms in the country are very small, only 0.5-1.5 hectares on the average.
The eldest of 6 children of a poor farmer, Ka Lita started helping out the two-hectare land tilled by her father during her grade school years. Her father was usually left with only a very small portion of the harvest, the majority ending up with the landlord. Their family incurred a lot of debts, enabling her to only finish her education at high school level despite her wanting to continue on to college. And as an eldest child in the family, she was destined to help their parents work for their livelihood.
Symbolizes peasant women
Ka Lita was organized and became a founding member of AMIHAN (National Federation of Peasant Women) and was elected as its deputy secretary general in October 1986. Before AMIHAN was formed, there was already an existing militant peasant movement led by KMP (Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas - Peasant Movement in the Philippines). AMIHAN saw that a separate peasant women's organization will make peasant women and their particular situation more visible in the broader peasants' movement, national liberation movement, and the women's movement. AMIHAN's overall goal is to work toward the empowerment of peasant women through organization, and by collectively advocating for alternative development policies and strategies that will respond to their particular situation as peasants and as women.
Currently, AMIHAN has 32 provincial chapters spread across the 3 major islands of the country, Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. It was named AMIHAN, after the gentle southeastern wind that comes during harvest season, symbolizing the character of peasant women, gentle yet tough, tender yet tenacious.
Ka Lita can be described as AMIHAN, who can also be the powerful wind that comes with a storm, like any other peasant women: strong and capable of destroying societal structures that breeds oppression. The AMIHAN also fights for genuine agrarian reform and is now campaigning for the passage of the 'Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill' or House Bill 3059 at the House of Representatives.
Simple leader
When Ka Lita stays in the office of AMGL or Alliance of Farmers in Central Luzon (an affiliate of KMP), it never gets messy. Even if she would have just arrived back from a schedule outside the office, and sees dirty plates in the kitchen, she would wash them even though she was not the one who had used them. You can see her sweeping the floor and cleaning the comfort room (toilet) whenever she is in their office.
Moreover, she makes sure all leaders and staff living in the office will eat cheap yet healthy food because she will always volunteer to cook. One of her favorite dishes is 'pinakbet' (an Ilocano dish made from mixed vegetables cooked in a fish sauce).
Their simple way of life has been instilled to their three children-Aljin, Mendiola and Danjun-as well. Her husband is the famous Rafael "Ka Paeng" Mariano (KMP National Chairperson and former Representative of the Anakpawis partylist during the 13th Philippine Congress). Very few people know that Ka Lita and Ka Paeng were childhood sweethearts, and got married in May 17, 1981.
Ka Lita admitted that Ka Paeng contributed a lot for her 'political development'. When she was not yet organized, she got irritated with what Ka Paeng was doing, especially when he became a fulltime peasant leader of KMP in 1985. Once Ka Paeng arrived from a schedule related to his work, he would always share with her news of where he came from, what he did, what he learned, and kept telling her why he is doing this historic mission. He would encourage Ka Lita to join KMP activities, from discussion groups to rallies. These experiences opened her eyes to the plight of the "exploited and oppressed" peasantry and she became deeply involved in the peasant struggle. And eventually, led her to where she is now.
From 1992 to 1997 she was designated the secretary general of AMIHAN. She helped in the formation of the AMIHAN chapter in Central Luzon, and was elected as its Chairperson while she was assigned to organize peasant women in Pampanga. As a peasant woman leader in Central Luzon, she led the peasant women in the struggle for land and livelihoods. Concretely, they were successful in getting 2 hectares (out of the 12 hectares won by AMGL against a landlord) and made it into a communal farm directly managed by the local peasant organization called Samahan ng Magsasakang Nagkakaisa.
As a leader of the AMGL, they led to victory the strike of agricultural workers in December 2004 at Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac, a more than 6,000 hectare sugar plantation owned by the family of Former President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino. The AMGL and AMIHAN led struggles against land-grabbing, high rent, low wages, usury, high production costs, agrochemical use, and destructive mining and dam projects in Central Luzon. From 2006 to present, she is the secretary general of AMGL, while simultaneously sitting as a member of KMP and the AMIHAN National Council.
Ka Lita is a cheerful person yet very committed with her work. She can even joke about the military's harassment she has been experiencing. She said that she had never imagined that the military would be 'interested' in her. She only realized this in 2006, when the Macapagal-Arroyo government launched the Oplan Bantay Laya II (OBL II) or 'Operation Freedom Watch, and declared a virtual "all-out war" against the communist movement and ordered it annihilated within two years. From then on it was used as a tool for political killings and persecution against progressive organizations, especially peasants, in Central Luzon heightened. She could no longer visit her own province because the military-death squad were chasing her, especially during General Jovito Palparan's stint in Central Luzon. But she did not despair, and continued doing her work as a peasant women's leader.
As a new grandmother to Chezka, a 10-month old granddaughter to her only daughter, Mendiola (named after the infamous Mendiola Massacre in 1987), she never misses any scheduled meeting or events, even if she has to bring her granddaughter with her! She has to do this to support her daughter who is finishing her last semester in college, while working at an NGO serving the peasants.
Ka Lita ended her interview by saying that, "I have chosen the road less traveled and hopefully the younger generation can learn from my story. I could have chosen to live an ordinary and simple life of a farmer. Instead I chose a different route-serving the Filipino masses, especially peasants, and leading them to struggle for genuine agrarian reform and freedom." ###
References
- Interview with Estrelita Mariano (February 2008), hand notes.
- KMP Press releases (2006, 2007, and 2008).
- AMIHAN brochure (2005)
- AMGL brochure (2005)
- KMP, "Peasant Situation" (October 2007)
- Quijano, Ilang-ilang (2006) "Terrorizing the Struggle for Food Sovereignty"
The struggles of Asian Peasant Women will be one of the main issues highlighted at the RIGHTS, EMPOWERMENT AND LIBERATION: ASIAN RURAL WOMEN'S CONFERENCE (ARWC) to be held in Arakonam, Tamil Nadu, India from MARCH 6-8, 2008.
Between 500 to 1,000 rural and indigenous women from various sectors of peasants, agricultural workers, fisherfolk, Dalits, pastoralists, informal workers, child labourers and minorities from all over Asia will gather in a vast field at the venue to strengthen the rural and indigenous women's movement and to build the leadership of women. Hosted by the Tamil Nadu Women's Forum (TNWF), the Tamil Nadu Dalit Women's Forum (TNDWF) and the Society of Rural Development (SRED), the conference aims to build perspectives, engender unity and solidarity among women and with other movements. It will also strive to forge new visions and new thinking about feminism, liberation, emancipation and the women's perspective on national liberation and food sovereignty, leading to strategies and collective action.
The three-day event will feature speak-outs and testimonies from rural and indigenous women sectors in Asia, symposiums and forums on rural women's issues, an organic food festival, film and other cultural presentations from various countries, and other solidarity actions.
Culminating on International Women's Day, the conference will be followed by a two-hour Women's Caravan led by rural and indigenous women weaving through streets and fields and a public assembly of more then 5,000 grassroots women leaders.
Contact for the Asian Peasants Coalition (APC)
c/o Rhoda Gueta, KMP, Philippines.
E-mail: ,
Tel / Fax: +632-928-4184
Contact for ARWC co-organiser Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PAN AP)
Marjo Busto Quinto, PAN AP staff in India:
Email: / or
Tel: +91 9791866484 (Arakkonam) calls only.
