peasant leaders

"araw ng magsasaka" is still in october but i recently unearthed some black and white photos i took years ago. the one above was taken sometime in the 70s and the one below was in the 80s.
kuya oca (adult male) was the first peasant leader i ever met. i and some other upscans spent two weeks in the barrio where he resided. actually, he mistook us for members of some political organization when we arrived at his home. "hindi pa handa ang mga lider ko," he said. it took him a few seconds to realize that we were just a bunch of students for summer "immersion".
back then i saw how able a leader he was. he made it to UP kuya oca had to drop out on his second year because his parents could not afford the upkeep. his father had better use for his extra pair of hands as a sacada. during cory's ascent to power, he became a towering figure in the left-of-center movement of southern tagalog peasants. to him i owe the early beginnings of my social consciousness.



right after passing the medical boards, i opted to work for the farmers. this was 1985 and i worked with a team of organizers in the foothill communities of mt. banahaw, quezon. we aimed to form a federation of coconut farmers. i was the only doctor. and i handled the health program for the different communities. the military called us communists. and the NPA labelled us as CIA spies. but in truth, we were part of the Center for Community Services of Ateneo de Manila. and to those in the know, that should explain the dilemma on labels.
one of the community health workers i trained in the mid 80s, cita (the woman with stethoscope) is now a peasant leader of a national organization of coconut farmers. back then she was a mother with three lovely kids. she wanted to learn so much about how to care for her family and her neighbors. she was a natural leader as people approached her for advice that are not just medical in nature. now she struggles with national concerns.