54 farmers and one girl

I did not understand a great part of the dialogue in the motion picture called “55 Days in Peking”. It was shown more than four decades ago. That old movie attracted me mainly because its propaganda, consisting of photographs posted on the wide side-boards of the theater where it was run, indicated that it was an action film. That was all that mattered to my youthful curiosity.

At a later time, my high school history teacher talked about the Boxer rebellion in China and the movie assumed a different, this time, historical, dimension compared to my original perception of its being purely a war picture. He explained that the rebels were a group of Chinese who practiced boxing as part of their rituals to make them impervious to bullets. Accordingly, those revolutionaries, initially touched by no other motivation than the advancement of their lot, stirred the minds of their people. They claimed that their poverty was caused by a manipulative regime working in cahoots with exploitative foreigners. As all revolutions had come to be anchored upon, the rebel leaders offered hope to their impoverished citizenry.

I remember both the movie and the lesson in history in relation to two more recent events in our land. Without trying to sound melodramatic, nor with any bit of sarcasm,  I refer to two touching incidents taking place in what books in social studies used to call as the land of promise – Mindanao. First, there was this group of 54 farmers from Sumilao who walked from their “homelots” to Malacañang Palace in far-away Luzon. The other story was that of a young girl whom I would like to label as M, for mysterious. She was reported to have committed suicide because, to her, living in utter poverty was hopeless. Fifty-four farmers and one suicide victim. Fifty-five all in all.

Reports had it that the 54 farmers were deprived of the land they were tilling since time immemorial. If their stories were to be relied upon, their ancestors worked on such fields long before anyone ever thought of putting legal claims on them. By an unfortunate twist of fate, their only source of food to eat was to be taken away. Granting that the ejectment was anchored on a legal edict, one which many of us are not familiar with, the absence of any known place for them to relocate to would equate their situation to that of the boxer rebels. 

The more painful story was that of M.  For days on end, she had not been to school where she, by reason of her age, should have been. Without any form of edible provision, she could not just walk along the school grounds and watch her friends munch their lunch. At a very young age of eleven, she discerned that her condition and that of her family was beyond any ray of hope. A painful death was, to her, more preferable to a miserable life and suicide was her only known tool.

  The ugly and inhuman fate of these 55 souls (54 farmers and M) is a result of our government’s manipulation.  There was manipulation told by the “Hello Garci” tape. There was manipulation revealed by the diversion of millions of pesos intended for agrarian reform program to the purchase of fertilizers for use, of all places, on the concrete pavements of some city streets.  There was manipulation showed by the ZTE deal (with the reported millions of dollars in bribe money) as highly placed power brokers worked on it.  There was manipulation when provincial governors were favored with five hundred thousand pesos in undocumented dole-outs.  There was manipulation demonstrated when congressmen were gifted with huge amounts of money without having to sign any papers at all. There was manipulation when former president Joseph Estrada, convicted for plunder, was pardoned even before the ink on the guilt verdict dried.  There was manipulation when candidates for barangay offices reportedly gave 300-500 pesos in exchange of votes   Ad infinitum!

I wanted to enumerate 55 dubious and ignoble events in our recent history. But I was afraid that before finishing my count, I would see the kind of blood that splattered for 55 days in and around Peking during the Boxer Rebellion.