Hamlet

This post is not about a famous Danish prince but about a sad phenomenon that is troubling some of the farmer communities in Mount Apo. A ‘hamlet’ is a temporary village to which upland farmers are forced to move due to rebel activity in the highlands. Since the 1970’s, rebels of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) have been operating in Mount Apo. Up till this day, they regularly clash with the army in the lowlands after which they redraw in the upland forests. When hiding uphill, the NPA demands food and shelter from the local farmers. The army, therefore, forcibly moves farmers to ‘hamlets’ to cut off the NPA from food supply.

For upland farmers, this situation is disastrous. Clashes between the army and the NPA often prevent them from harvesting their crops so that everything goes to waste. Since the farmers cannot stay overnight on their farms, they have to hike or ride horseback to their farms every morning and return in the afternoon. As the farmers are malnourished, the trip is tiring and tedious.

Kapwa is working in some of the areas where farmers are ‘hamleted’. In Sinoron, a very sad thing happened not so long ago. Kapwa had supplied rice seedlings to be planted in the uplands. Out of sheer hunger, some of the farmers had no choice but to cook the seedlings and eat them to be able to survive. Kapwa is now helping the farmers to also grow rubber trees to relieve poverty. Rubber trees don’t need much care and once they are full-grown, you can harvest every other day. There is no threat of harvests going to waste and it cannot feed rebels looking for food. Rubber is expensive, so it would bring a good price. It is a long-term investment, though, since rubber trees need some 7 years to grow.