NORDIS WEEKLY
June 4, 2006

 

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Jose Doton: A peoples’ martyr

SAN NICOLAS, Pangasinan (May 27) — The one who pulled the trigger that resulted in the killing of Jose Doton on May 16 will never know how valuable Doton has been to many people. Would he have cared enough to know the background of the man he was ordered, or was paid for, to kill?

An initial investigation by concerned people’s organizations showed a systematic surveillance before Doton was finally gunned down. His assailants established his daily routine after identifying his residence.

In a tribute during the last night of his wake, eulogists took turns challenging the assailants to come out, but no way! He might have been hiding or celebrating his prize for the head of Doton. Another one is down from a triggerman’s bullet.

A father to all

The assassin will never know how much Cristy and sibling Rey will miss a father like Tatay Jose. He will never know how much Nanay Juanit hated being alone in the house that Tatay Jose built for her and her children. He will never know that Tatay Jose’s grandchildren will keep on calling his name many times a day even after he has been laid to rest on May 27 in a public cemetery in this town.

“Tatay, diak pulos awaten ti ipapatay mo! Anya’t nagbasbasulam? Apay a pinatayda ‘ka?” (Father, I will never accept your death. What wrong did you make? Why did they kill you?) Cristy keeps on repeating as she cried over Tatay Jose’s coffin.

Tatay Jose’s family is bigger than anyone would know. Throngs of peasants from other western Pangasinan towns San Manuel, Asingan, Tayug, Sta. Maria, Balungao, Villasis and many others came to pay their last tributes. During the wake, loose change in aluminum foil and plastic wraps trickled. Someone came to whisper to Nanay Juanit’s ear, “These are from two more tanggal (irrigator’s group).” The bag is heavy with coins and other denominations of the peso. At another necrological service, two more envelopes full of bills were handed to Nanay Juanit. More than the amount of money the leaders have collected from each member of the farmers’ federation or from a community irrigators’ association which claim Doton has helped organized and managed, their leaders expressed how much the farmers would pine for the unselfish services Doton has rendered to them.

Up to his last breath, Doton was serving his barangay and the peasants. He was following–up the barangay officials’ honoraria a few hours before he was gunned down. He was the barangay treasurer of Caboluan barangay of this town where he was born.

“Saan koman a napnapan isuna idiay munisipyo ta di da napaltugan isuna,” (He should not have gone to the town hall so that they could not have fired at him) Cristy said in between sobs. “Saanna koma laengen nabirukan diay baka na idi rabii tapno saanen a nagpa-ili isuna,” (He could not have recovered his astray cow last night so that he did not heed for town) she lamented.

But Tatay Jose still had another meeting with another farmers’ group that morning when he left for the town hall to get the barangay council honoraria. He had chosen not to go there believing that there are other leaders who could preside over that meeting. No one would sign the voucher but him, he told his colleagues, who let him go to town.

Tatay Jose received an award for being the most outstanding public servant of San Nicolas on March 4, 2006. Peasants in San Nicolas testified that no one else deserved the award but him.

Even San Nicolas Mayor Leoncio Saldivar could not help but tell anecdotes on how Ama Jose has inspired him to work for the people.

Inspiring his successors

“There are times when I would be too lazy to work but when he comes to me, my adrenalin to work harder is activated. Here comes a man who does not even receive any pay for his efforts, yet he works so conscientiously on his projects, Saldivar said of Ama Jose. “Dakkel ti respeto ken bain ko kanyana,” (I have high respects for him) he said.

His successors in the farmers’ federation, the agriculture and fishery council and the gold panners’ federation all but accepted the responsibilities left by Tatay Jose. However, they all agree that they might not be able to dispose of the tasks as efficiently as Tatay Jose did.

Among the accomplishments they identified are the construction of a farmers’ training center, a federation office, the maintenance of all irrigation systems and the livelihood project for displaced small scale miners along the Agno River.

“Ti inararapaapna a maikkan ti nasayaat a panagbiag dagiti naawanan ti kabiagan iti San Manuel ken San Nicolas ket inkam itultuloy inggana magun-od daytoy,” (We will pursue the struggle until we attain his dream to give a decent living to all those who have been displaced in San Manuel and San Nicolas due to the San Roque Dam Project) said Nora Luzano, acting president of the San Nicolas Gold Panners’ Federation, Inc. She could not hold back the tears as she went on with her eulogy. Twelve San Nicolas barangays and many others in San Manuel, have been identified beneficiaries to the project which Doton’s group Tignay dagiti Mannalon a Mangwaya-waya ti Agno (Timmawa) asked the San Roque Power Corporation to compensate partly displaced small scale miners.

Remembering a union leader “little brother”

Among those who returned to Caboluan for Doton’s wake and burial march were his two sisters, Rosita, 80 from Laoag City, and Aurora, 79 from Pasig City. Amid viewing a documentary film on Doton’s political involvement, Rosita and Aurora cannot help but wipe their cheeks of tears.

He also worked at the US Tobacco factory and the Ideal Synthetic Industries, Aurora volunteers. In the 70s he joined the US Tobacco workforce but the factory closed down after it was paralyzed by a strike. He went home to help till the fields but his meager earnings was not enough to support his family that when Aurora, then a union official, saw him very skinny, she invited Doton to the Ideal Synthetic Industries.

The leader in Doton easily drove him to become a union officer like his sister. Aurora remembers vividly how they paralyzed the plastic rope factory until the management recognized the collective bargaining agreement. The strike succeeded in getting benefits for the workers but it closed shop afterwards.

Since 1986 when the Doton brood returned to Caboluan, he has been tilling a half hectare of inherited rice land, and a hectare more which his wife got from her parents. On top of these pieces of land, he also tills another hectare for a local landholder.

From a brood of 7, Jose’s death comes second to Jacinto who passed away two years ago from a fatal stroke.

The other three living brothers Eusebio, Pascasio and Cancio are also peasants. Cancio, who also sustained gunshot wounds from the attack on May 16, has barely recovered and has just been discharged from the family clinic in time for the burial.

Native irrigator, anti-dam activist

As a peasant, he organized many irrigators’ groups locally known as tanggal (irrigation canal). These are groups of peasants who accessed the overflow of the Agno River for irrigating their fields.

“Awan to ti kadwak nga agpasurong nu awan ti danum ti talonmi,” (No one will accompany me to check up the irrigation when no water comes to my field) a farmer whispered at his body. He is fondly remembered as the only one who could chide National Irrigation Administration (NIA) personnel on issues of irrigation services. “Oras nga agpasurong isuna, umayen ti danum,” (Once he goes to the irrigation office, water comes) his colleagues exaggerate.

Local San Nicolas farmers chose Doton to head the farmers’ federation because they knew how much he has cared for the native irrigation system.

When the construction of the San Roque Dam started in 1998, San Nicolas farmers at the Agno River’s floodplains were deprived of the river overflow for irrigation. The construction site had to be dried up that the river had to be diverted elsewhere. In addition, the diggings made the Agno riverbed so deep that the irrigation canals could not but be dried up too.

The hydrologist in Doton understood hydraulics in layman’s terms. He knew that the irrigation that dam builders promised them would never benefit San Nicolas farmers. He would explain in a way that ordinary unlettered peasants could understand the workings of a huge irrigation system that would eventually wipe out all the rice lands along the Agno River. No one would need the services of an irrigation system, by then, he would say, because there would be no more fields to till when the multi-purpose mega dam pushes through with the planned irrigation component.

Thus, he led Pangasinan peasants in opposing the San Roque dam.

Beyond the dam

His anti-dam campaign would go beyond the province and the issues were no longer confined at opposing the dam project. In between talks against the mega dam, he referred to as salot (menace), he would painstakingly explain peasant exploitation by landlords and traders. He would always discuss the price of palay and gold in the local market. He would say traders took many of what the peasants could have brought home to their own families.

He dreamt of a genuine agrarian reform and by genuine, he would explain that it should not end with land distribution or the emancipation of tenants from their land lords, or the lowering of usurious practices. He dreamt of a decent life for every farm household.

Frail up to his death, Apo, as most colleagues call Doton, never lorded over anyone. His weakness, coffee and cigarettes at three o’clock in the morning, brought him smoker’s cough and a stomach ulcer.

No assassin’s bullets could have prevented Apo Jose’s inspiring impact on the people, not only in Pangasinan but all over. # Lyn V. Ramo for NORDIS

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