“I would like to repeat that I am very magnanimous in victory. So I call on all those countrymen of ours who are not yet with us to join us at the earliest possible time so that together we can rebuild our beautiful country.” – Cory Aquino, upon being proclaimed President of the Republic of the Philippines
The 1986 Edsa revolution holds a very significant and historical importance for this country, especially on economy and agriculture. Frustrated by decades of authoritarian rule, human rights violations and corruption, the Filipino people displayed massive disobedience in February 1986 as a bloodless revolution that ousted then President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
ALSO TRIGGERED BY SUGAR CRISIS
In retrospect, years before the Edsa revolution the sugar industry was hit by the global crisis that significantly affected the Philippines, especially Negros as the sugar bowl of the country. Coupled by the assassination of the former Senator Benigno Aquino Jr., the country was beset by economic and political instability, manifested by the sugar crisis and civil disobedience respectively.
Undeniably, the sugar industry during this period played a very crucial role in the country’s economy, especially Negros, and it can be said that the sugar crisis was one of the reasons that ignited the EDSA revolution. In Negros, the crisis was considered an instant catastrophe that intensified Negrenses’ civil disobedience, that even church leaders, prominently the late Bishop Antonio Fortich, was quoted saying, “Negros is a social volcano ready to erupt soon.”
This propelled militant organizations to intensify mass organizing against Marcos, targeting the sugar workers and their families who are the main direct victims that eventually, many if not most of them went underground and became the “people’s army.”
‘EDSA-SUGAR’
The economy during 1980’s as the EDSA decade was significantly driven by the sugar industry, the Philippines being a major exporter of sugar. Sugar production all over the country, particularly Negros, was the major if not the only source of income for many Filipinos, especially the traders, big planters, and the sugar workers. As a result of the crisis leading to the EDSA uprising, most of the big planters abandoned their sugar plantations, especially those politically identified with the Marcos regime. That left tens of thousands of sugar workers in dire hunger and poverty their children suffered with severe malnutrition. This intensified the call for land reform and workers’ rights and benefits. Later, calls for crop diversification also reverberated, learning from the lessons of a monocrop economy that was export and profit oriented sugar industry.
The EDSA revolution catapulted Corazon Aquino to the Presidency, putting her to the litmus test of implementing agrarian reform, with her family as the biggest owner of the biggest sugarcane plantation in the country, Hacienda Luisita, subjected to land reform.
This was the era of “Edsa-sugar” when sugar continued to play a very pivotal role in the economy despite major setbacks. Under land reform, the sugar workers, now as agrarian reform beneficiaries almost solely dependent on the sugar industry for almost a century, considered the program one of the biggest gains from the EDSA revolution. However, the ARB’s transitioning from workers to landowners had difficulties on how to make the land productive and can only resort to planting sugarcane.
SUGARLAND COST LIVES
The Edsa uprising was extended in Negros where land reform in sugar plantations faced resistance from landowners that cost lives of beneficiaries. At certain points the struggle for land acquisition in the sugar industry reached its extreme, where I stood witness to some of them, having been directly involved in rural development work.
After lives were lost, the acquisition of lands faced another major challenge of losing possession of lands because of utter lack of financial resources, low technology, and farm machinery and equipment. Financial literacy and management also stood as crucial components significantly lacking.
EDSA PLUS
The EDSA revolution was not directly tied to the sugar industry, but the policies initiated directly related to it such as land reform impacted agriculture and the sugar workers and other sectors dependent on the industry. This is an affirmation that the sugar industry remains a major contributor to the economy.
Other related policies borne out of Edsa was trade liberalization as argued by others paved the way to economic growth. Arguably, I must assert that liberalization is not a product of the Edsa revolution but that of the prevailing economic system, promoted by the state that deems it inevitable.*
