A majority of Filipino farmers have reportedly been struggling financially this year after the price of rice plummeted. A viral post that that’s been picking up steam on Facebook this week shows the human side of the story, and many netizens are finding it heartbreaking.
Novica Tabaco, an employee working at the Paete Municipal Hall in Laguna, wrote about an elderly, illiterate man named Mr. Fortades who arrived in their office — barefoot, to avoid bring in dirt from outside — to apply for a government loan.
(Rice stalks are now being sold for PHP7 (US$0.13) a kilo, due to the deluge of imports, which led the government to offer farmers interest-free loans as a short-term solution.)
“I had worked as an HR (human resources staff) and also as a [bank] teller. Back then, I couldn’t control my temper when I had to explain constantly. But with this farmer, I couldn’t get mad. And I don’t have the right to get mad at him. My heart was shattered into pieces because he didn’t know how to write,” she wrote in Filipino and English in her post, which has been shared almost 16,000 times since it first appeared on Friday.
When some documents needed to be signed, Fortades asked, “Ma’am, is it OK for me to use my thumb mark? Because I don’t know how to write my signature.”
Tabaco ended her post with a message for the middle-men who act as buyers from farmers like Mr. Fortades.
“[P]lease pay more for [their] rice stalks. The price of the seed is expensive but the plant is so cheap,” she wrote.
In an interview with Coconuts Manila, Tabaco explained that the farmer, who she guessed was about 70 years old, was applying for a loan from the government-managed Landbank.
“It’s PHP15,000 (US$280), eight years to pay with zero interest. I’m the one responsible for filing the documents of the farmers. I have to interview them [before their application is approved]. He arrived alone,” she said.
Tabaco learned Fortades was illiterate only at the conclusion of their interview.
“My interview ended and I needed his signature,” she told Coconuts. “He said, ‘I can’t write even a signature.'”
While Fortades’ case is depressing, Tabaco said she’s met farmers in even worse situations. “A few are deaf ,because they had accidents while working in the fields.”
Sympathy for the farmer has, naturally, been pouring forth this week online.
Jonah Micah wrote, “So sad…Sometimes it’s the tough jobs that pay so little.”
Lynnie Alvarez noticed that the farmer was barefoot. “He actually removed his slippers [before entering the office].”
Tabaco replied to Alvarez that she and her colleagues told the farmer to wear his slippers, but he refused because he “didn’t want the office to become dirty.”
Commenting on a media Facebook account that shared Tabaco’s post, a netizen named Leung Jaime wrote, “Let’s not look down upon those who cannot read nor write. They may have been unable to study because of poverty; they needed to work so that their kids can go to school instead.”
Have you met someone like Mr. Fortades who is paying the price for falling rice prices? Tell us their stories by leaving a comment below or tweeting to @CoconutsManila.
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