Supervise the
assistance for workers

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

During her visit to Bacolod City last week for the awarding rites of the Regional Development Council that was held at the new Bacolod Government Center, Negros Occidental Governor Isidro Zayco appealed to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for action on the plight of sugar workers who are facing a long dead season this year, and former porters at the old airport who have been displaced.

The dead season, originally known as “Tiempos muertos” in the early days of the sugar industry, refers to the gap between the planting and harvesting of sugar, during which workers, who get paid only for work actually done, have no other means of earning, unless they have managed to put away some savings for the proverbial rainy day.

In the past, when such workers were virtually part of the families of the landowners, the hacienderos, for whom they work, they did not have to cope with the dead season problem as they do now. Then, they had their “amos” or masters, who provided them with housing, and to whom they could run for loans, and other forms of assistance. However, under the present-day arrangements, such workers are virtually on their own after they have been paid for the labor they had provided when it was needed.

Because of some vagaries in the industry, that has been affected, not only by world prices but by erratic weather as well, to say nothing about the fact that most of them have also cut their ties with the landowners through the implementation of the land reform program, such workers have to cope with the problem on their own now.

Hopefully, because the President acted quickly on Zayco’s request, the workers may soon be assisted through the Land Bank of the Philippines that is providing micro-financing for livelihood programs the displaced workers can undertake.

A word of caution, though: Dole-outs alone will not solve the problem. Both the provincial government and the Land Bank will do better by implementing a supervised and monitored application of whatever amounts they may release to the projects earmarked for their beneficiaries. That is the only way it will work, and maximize their effects.*