Community visits with SPFTC

SPFTC is a fair trade organization with whom SarahI did her internship and they are also my neighbors.

They always wanted to let me know a bit about their work and show me around in different communities. Just now a German doctor was visiting Cebu and they were going to go to some communities. So I joined them.

We went to 3 different communities: 1 urban poor and 2 rural poor. In every place somebody of one of the peoples organizations explained us their situation and the difficulties they are facing.

We first went to the urban poor group. In Pasil, a coastal barangay of Cebu-city. This is a densely populates area. Small streets in between the houses, rats running around, dirt everywhere,…slums…. As the City government want to make a nice boulevard here, the people living here are threatened with demolition…their houses will be destroyed. Apparently there is a law saying that people of whom the house is being demolished should be reallocated but here no other place has been given to them…Another problem is that the people now live next to the sea. Making a living of that…but they might be reallocated to the mountains…which means a complete adaptation..having to look for new ways to make a living…The group we visited is fighting against the government, trying to lobby to stop the demolition…but there is not a lot of hope left. Demolition is planned for 2010. However elections are also held in 2010…so maybe they still have until 2011…

The two rural groups were farmer groups. Both talked to us about their history and about the problems they are facing in getting landownership. The first group has been fighting for it since 1930. Now they own 55% of the land, but the other 45% has recently been claimed by somebody else. Nobody knows on what ground…probably lots of money….

The second group had a deal with the landowner to sell his land to the farmers working on it. As time passed by the farmers developed the roads getting to the farmlands and an irrigation system. 10 farmers were able to pay and get ownership. However 9 others weren’t able to pay…the landowner broke the deal, as now good roads were put up and he saw the possibilities of the farmland. The farmer group protested…but the landowner fought back…demolishing some of the houses of the protesting farmers…



It was all quite depressing to hear and it makes you realize again that there is so much injustice, poverty and inequality. There is still a lot of work… But the Filipinos kept on laughing and making jokes about their situation…this is how Filipinos are…laughing away their problems…sometimes that’s the only thing you can do…

Luckily the day didn’t end completely depressing. We went to have dinner/picknick at mountain view. A place where you have a wonderful view over the Cebu. The whole crew of SPFTC came along. One of the attractions of mountain view is the hanging bridge. I had to try it out…it looked quite safe…but then the boys started to swing it and started jumping on it…I was shaking…I just sat down and screamed like a little kid…haha yes they all had fun… and so did I once I got of :).