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The Provincial Sugar Industry Task Force yesterday submitted to Gov. Isidro Zayco a master list of sugar workers in Negros Occidental, which will be used as the basis for prioritizing government assistance during the “dead season”.
The ongoing dead season is the time of the year when there is little to no work for sugar workers.
The master list prepared by the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office shows that there are 83,934 sugar workers in 31 cities and towns in Negros Occidental with 387,608 dependents.
The provincial government has allotted P15 million to assist the workers during the dead season and help from the Department of Social Welfare and Development is also being tapped, Zayco said.
Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral is expected in Negros Occidental on July 17, he added.
A provincial government meeting is set today to discuss how sugar workers can be assisted, Zayco said. The provincial government can only afford to buy 13,000 sacks of rice, he pointed out.
The provincial government fund will not be adequate for all and assistance will have to be prioritized for those most in need, he said.
Workers in sugar farms are usually provided assistance by landowners whom they work for, Board Member Enrique Miguel Lacson, chairman of the Provincial Sugar Industry Task Force, said.
Priority assistance from the provincial government will be given to small farmers and agrarian reform beneficiaries, he said.
A PSWDO report said sugar workers mostly belong to large families with six to 15 members, two of three of whom are engaged in sugar work.
Family heads usually have only attained grade one to grade three education, and few of their children have completed elementary school, the report said.
Most of the sugar workers don’t have livelihood skills to augment their income during the off season, and only a few industrious sugar workers engage in planting root crops and vegetables for the food of the family, the report added.
Some are into backyard livestock raising.
The sugar workers are also economically depended on hacienda owners and are prone to fall victim to loan sharks, the report said.
The “pakyaw system” also forces the children to be absent from classes to help their parents generate income for the day. Grown up children of farm workers tend to work outside the province, particularly in Metro Manila, and are vulnerable to exploitation and trafficking, it added.
Sugar workers also have limited information to access other basic social services and lack the self-confidence to participate in any community social structure, the PSWDO report said.*CPG