Land of Bondage, Land of the Free,

Land of No Bail Bond

In a classic oratorical piece delivered in the presence of then President Manuel L. Quezon, young Ateneo student Raul S. Manglapus depicted what was then and still is the social inequities engulfing and involving almost two-thirds of our country’s masses.

Entitled, “Land of Bondage, Land of the Free”, the orator impressed President Quezon so much that the latter asked the former to be his Presidential Youth Adviser.

Excerpted from the oration are the following words:

“Give me land. Land to own. Land unbeholden to any tyrant. Land that will be free. Give me land for I am starving. Give me land that my children may not die. Sell it to me; sell it to me at a fair price as one freeman sells to another and not as a usurer sells to a slave. I am poor, but I will pay it! I will work; work until I fall from weariness for my privileges, for my inalienable right to be free.

BUT IF YOU WILL NOT GRANT ME THIS…  If you will not grant me this last request, this ultimate demand, then build a wall around your home… build it high…place a sentry on every parapet! For I who have been silent these three hundred years will come in the night when you are feasting, with my cry, and my bolo at your door. And may God have mercy on your soul!”

The demand and the threat manifested in the above piece symbolize what has been the crying voice for social and economic justice by peasants who had been in effect enslaved not just for decades but centuries.

Attempts had been made to correct this social and economic injustice by powers that be.

In the ‘50s President Ramon Magsaysay instituted the Land of Promise encouraging peasants and other citizens to go to Mindanao and be provided with public lands to till and own. He went even as far as enunciating the doctrine that “those who have less in life must have more in law.”

FRONTING HISTORY: Seated in front: Benjamin Maynigo (author); Seated behind starting from left: Former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Tina Manglapus Maynigo, late President Diosdado Macapagal, Pacita Manglapus and Senator Raul Manglapus.

In the ‘60s, President Diosdado Macapagal working with then Senator Raul S. Manglapus who led the legislative fight to pass the first real but still insufficient Land Reform Code. It faced so much resistance by a legislature controlled by landlords, they were happy just to pass it.

In the ‘70s President Ferdinand Marcos on October 1972, a month after declaring Martial Law, issued Presidential Decree No. 27 declaring the Philippines as a Land Reform Nation. The decree specified how the big tracts of land should be divided and distributed, how the landowners are to be compensated, who are entitled, the restrictions and others.

Marcos was hoping that with Land Reform, he would be able to suppress the revolution launched by the communist left and slowly being joined by a restive population led by the youth.

Of course, what really brought Marcos down was not just the cry for economic and social justice but more because of his suppression of the people’s political, civil and human rights.

It was not just getting out of economic bondage; it was also the yearning for political freedom!

Author with President Cory Aquino

 In the ‘80s, after leading the People Power Revolution that toppled Marcos, President Cory Aquino finally got the passage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform in 1988 assuring the eventual transfer of ownership and control to the farmers.

It is under this law that the recent decision of the Supreme Court was based upon. Hacienda Luisita, as decided, should now be transferred to the control of farmers via ownership and the related rights that come with it. The Hacienda has been owned by the Conjuangcos for a long, long time and PNoy is a member of the Cojuangco clan.

The Share Distribution Option (SDO), which makes the farmers part owners but still without control, is not what is really envisioned by the law.

This development is really a gift as well as a blessing for PNoy despite what many might perceive as retaliation by Arroyo’s appointees in the Supreme Court.

The 14-0 voting clears PNoy of any responsibility that befell his relatives and other haciendas that would soon suffer the same fate.

Implementing Cory’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform of the Philippines (CARP) aggressively is consistent with the promotion of social justice as provided for in the Cory Constitution.

“Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap” policy would accelerate the government’s role to promote economic and social justice. Recovery of the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcos family and cronies; GMA, Mike Arroyo, relatives, cronies; and other corrupt officials by PCGG and the other agencies would hasten the implementation of CARP by providing assistance to the farmers and giving just compensation to the Landlords.

Prosecution of electoral saboteurs and cheaters, warlords, drug lords, gambling and jueteng lords are consistent with promoting a healthy, just, humane, democratic and free society.

As PNoy frees the peasants from their land of bondage, he must go after the enemies of democracy and honest government. He must make the latter live the lives of men and women in the Land of No Bail Bond.