When I Met the Woman Warriors of Hacienda Bacan

Food and a bottle of your favourite drink can turn an atmosphere around. Let me tell you a true story about how emotions turned from heavy to a little lighter for people sharing their poignant stories about land dispute. 

When I was hired as a writer and photographer for a farmer advocacy organization, I was already overwhelmed by the amount of work and research to be done. Six days into the job, the Executive Director told me to serve as an official photographer for a writer from Vera Files who was in the process of collecting stories for a book about the state of the farmer workers and farmers of the Philippines. I was to stay in Negros Occidental and tour the place together with the organic staff from our office there and Mylah Reyes-Roque, the writer.

The first stop of our tour was in Hacienda Bacan, where I met women farmers who were all widows. They told their stories in such calm and even comedic manner. Their stories had a deep rooted pain that showed in the way they clung on to each other even in such subtle holding of hands and tapping of each other’s shoulders.

My picture of the women of Hacienda Bacan published in the book
"Bittersweet Stories of the Farmworkers and Farmers in the Philippines."

All of these women confidently said that they could do all the things that men could do in terms of farming. They know how to plant, ground the soil and plow with a Carabao. As widows, they had to exert extra effort to make ends meet for their family.

Visitacion Gara, 80, accumulated 10 children until she became a widow at 40. She got pregnant every 2 years because as she said, there was no electricity, so her and her husband would sleep early at 7pm and make babies. Land dispute was always a brewing energy in the farm she and her husband used to till. For her, it was never that chaotic before. But the height of the struggle managed to catch up with her at 78. She was able to witness the distressing fate of her fellow farmers who were killed by hacienda guards. Other of her friends from neighbouring farms had to join a 29-day hunger strike in the Department of Agrarian Reform Quezon City to force authorities to install them in the land fit for them according to the law. She knew women who strongly decided to absolve their organization in case they did not make it beyond their hunger.

Many women farmers continue to fight for land tenure despite experiencing bloodshed first hand. In fact, in August 31, 2011, one of the women, 80 year old Cristeta Santacruz was buried because of a collapsed tent when guards of the hacienda administrator demolished the farmer’s tent and started shooting at them. They were already installed on June 28, 2011, but because of standing crops, the farmers only occupied 2.2 hectares of sugarcane. When they expanded to the next 4.4 hectares, the guards started shooting. Standing in guard with only machetes and bamboo poles, women surrounded the chief of security until the guards left the area. 

I really admired the women I met in Hacienda Bacan and the rest of the farmers I met in my entire Negros Occidental trip. After hearing the last woman share her emotional story, on queue the facilitator finally suggested for us to take our lunch break. It was awkward to shift temperament easily after taking in all those sensitive topics. If I could paint the atmosphere of the group, it would have a dark cloud on top with rain attempting to express what was clutched inside the hearts of the farmers. There was too much bitterness to tell.

But there is just something about food and drink that changes people’s frame of mind easily. The bitter stories subdued as the group feasted over chicken malunggay, pork and chicken adobo, rice and the refreshing sweetness of coca cola. Having coke or “coks”, as they called it there, seemed symbolic of tasting the sugar of their farms with adequate kick to represent their enduring struggle for land tenure after all these years. Corporate politics aside, in times like these, nothing compares to a bottle of coca cola. Not too much sugar and not too less to deprive off flavour, just like the gut of these real women warriors I met.

Walang Kapares sa mga Babayi sa Hacienda Bacan. Walang Kapares sa Coca Cola!

We left the Hacienda with sincere gratefulness. Carrying their colourful stories, We proceeded to the next area, now bagged with enough sugar and geared up for the expected atmosphere to become.

The copy of the book of Vera Files entitled “Bittersweet Stories of Farmer workers and Farmers in the Philippines” can be found in Task Force Mapalad Inc. office in Quezon City. You can contact TFM here.