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“No better life yet for gold panners after the dam”

Hungry, uneducated, unemployed

SAN MANUEL, Pangasinan (Oct. 12) — Two years after the release of livelihood project loans for peasants displaced by the San Roque Multi-purpose Dam (SRMPD), affected residents now say that this has given them little or no financial gains at all.

Friends of the Earth – Japan (FoE Japan) campaigner Hozue Hatae, who conducted an on-the-spot monitoring found the cooperative store in Sitio Calingcamasan, Brgy. Narra intact and growing. Its members, however, appear short-changed with the financial returns.

FoE Japan continuously monitors the efficiency of the compensation scheme, including livelihood programs provided by the project proponents, SRPC and the government’s National Power Corporation.

“They and the financier, Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) must take responsibility to uplift the living standards of the project affected people (PAPs) and to restore the quality of life they had before the construction of the dam,” Hatae told NORDIS.

This store is one of several other livelihood projects included in the Resettlement Action Plan, part of the social acceptability program of the SRMP.

Coop operations

Two members tend the cooperative store from 7:15 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. one day a week. Nine others take turns every week, since November 2002 when the San Roque Power Corporation (SRPC) approved the P30,000 loan.

The store sells basic commodities that peasants in Calingcamasan buy daily, except rice.

Members’ tasks include that of selling, keeping a list of things sold and taking a daily inventory of items that needed to be purchased in the grocery store in town. At the end of each day, storekeepers close the store, taking care to secure it and turn in the cash sales to the treasurer.

The store manager makes the weekly list of items and orders the goods delivered. The inventory is done monthly and dividends are distributed. If a member owes anything from the store, the amount is applied to the dividends, and she gets the difference or pay if there is a negative balance.

Diversifying operations to get more profits

The question remains on whether the project sustains its members or not. In April 2003, the cooperative bought 11 goats which cost it P8,800, or half of the store’s 2002 profits. The goats were dispersed to each member. Not all goats, however, reproduced, leaving the members unsuccessful in their aim to reap greater profit.

Lani, the storekeeper at the time of the FOEJ monitoring visit, gets less than P300 a month as a share in the store’s profits.

“Not enough for a four-day a month work,” another member said of the individual share, but rebutted that the sum is better than nothing. “Isu pay…” (It still helps), she added.

Hatae’s monitoring uncovered that the store extends credit to members as well as non-members. Its terms are difficult especially for members. For instance, a member may get up to P300 on credit, payable within a one-month period. If a member cannot pay on time, a fine of P100 is collected on top of his debts. For non-members, the ceiling is at P200. The store charges only P50 for the unpaid debts for the non-members. This is how the store gets its additional income.

The store also engages in an internal mortgage system within the sitio. Interests are not charged for non-members, while an undisclosed interest is charged for non-members. One such petty loaning arrangement yielded for the coop a refrigerator which the cooperative store now uses.

The store capital as of the last inventory rose to P45,000 from the original P30,000 and there was an outstanding collectible amounting to P17,000. At the surface, the project is earning, but members say the income they get is not enough.

Although it was clear that the store capital was approved as a loan, it is ambiguous to them whether or not the SRPC is still expecting a payback.

“Awan met ti imbagada a singiren da kami pay. Baka saan dan a singiren ,” (They did not say if they will still collect from us. Perhaps, they won’t anymore) members surmised.

Originally, there were 15 in the list of member-beneficiaries but four backed out before the project started.

The storekeepers are members of the Calingcamasan Women’s Livelihood Association. They moved from various former communities, which the government expropriated in favor of the SRMP.

Better times with gold-panning

All of them still tend the farms with their respective husbands who do most menial tasks in the fields. The women raise hogs and goats to augment income from the rice fields.

Most of them say that they still have to realize an alternative livelihood that will bring them an income that will approximate their income from gold-panning.

“Awanen ti masayyuan idi nalpas ti dam. Nadadael metten dagiti ramramit mi idiay sigud a karayan,” (There are no more gold-panning areas when the dam was done. Our tools and equipment were destroyed in the former river) the former gold-panners inform Hatae. Asked if the livelihood projects given by the SRPC give them enough income to add to the rice produce of their farms, they were making faces insinuating that better times are yet to come.

Sonia, another member who responded to the interviews, said that only households with an overseas contract worker in the family could afford to send children to college.

“Narigrigat itatta,” (Life is harder now) Sonia said. “Responsibilidad mi laeng daytoy nga agbantay uray awan unay ti ganar mi. Uray a ta maminsan met laeng iti maka-domingo,” (It is our responsibility to tend the store even if it does not pay well. Anyway, it’s just one day a week) Sonia said.

“Idi agsaysayyo kami, adda a dagus ti pagplete dagiti apan agiskwela, ken adda a dagus ti igatang ti masapol iti uneg ti balay,” (In those times when we panned for gold, there was transportation money for students and there was instant cash with which to buy basic commodities) another laments.

Hatae concluded that “this project itself is not efficient enough to improve the living standard of the affected people”. Their living standard is still low, Hatae said, comparing with the previous standard, even after all the provision of monetary compensation and livelihood programs. She quoted an earlier research findings by Mr. Hideyuki Kurita of the Japanese University of Ehime that their income from gold-panning used to be P40,000-80,000 per year.

FoE Japan still recommends necessary proper and just compensation. # Lyn V. Ramo for NORDIS

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