The Fisherfolks

The Philippines hosts the longest discontinuous coastline in the world. For an archipelago, coastal and marine ecosystems are particularly vital because they provide food, raw materials, and ecological balance. However, for the past few years, our aquatic resources have been rapidly dwindling. Different studies show that fishing at the coastal area has already reached, if not surpassed the maximum sustainable yield. Aquatic resources’ depletion is the natural consequences of over-fishing perpetuated by big commercial fishers who are mostly foreigners. Such situation exposes the ill effects of exploiting nature in the name of profit. Equipped with resources like big and highly mechanized fishing vessels, big commercial fishers easily displaced small and traditional Filipino fisher folks who still employ outdated fishing equipment.

The Current National Context

Filipinos today are living in a society best characterized by socio-economic underdevelopment and political disunity.

The present government has accepted the truth that the country is facing fiscal crisis which is definitely far from over amidst allegations that some government officials committed massive plunder of the national treasury and further indebtedness brought by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s corruption before, during and after the 2004 elections.

In the urban centers, massive and successive demolition of urban poor communities to pave the way to infrastructure and development projects owned and financed mostly by foreign capitals continue to displace thousands of families.
In the rural areas, the more than a decade implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program manifests the continuing failure of the government to guarantee genuine land reform, just wages, job security and social services for the rural poor.
In Negros Island for instance contrary to Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) claims of high accomplishments in land distribution in Negros, a closer scrutiny of its actual land distribution as of 2004 reveals a measly 15 percent of its total targets of 246,465 hectares. Even DAR’s compulsory acquisition of commercial farms/plantations of 50 hectares and above, which should have started in 1998, has covered a dismal 656 hectares most of which are bank-foreclosed lands anyway.
Another irony is the fact that of 153,650 hectares of sugar lands marked by DAR Task Force Sugarland for land distribution, only 26,992 hectares of sugar lands are actually covered in Negros Occidental, the bastion of landlord monopoly, while 126,658 hectares are in Negros Oriental. Today, of the 1.33 million hectares total land area of Negros, 818,991.026 hectares are under private control. Of these, some 618,991 hectares are controlled by 46,574 landowners; about 200,000 hectares comprising 101 hectares and above are controlled by 486 families only. This practically placed around two-third of Negros lands are under private monopoly control.
The wanton destruction of environment through continuing promotion of large scale mining and logging put to risk the lives and food security of the next generations.

The perpetual subservience to US-led globalization policies and unwavering support to the immoral and unjust US wars of aggression and intervention has put the country in the reign of state-sponsored terror and repression through the Calibrated Preemptive Response (CPR) policy which brutally suppresses the people’s right to hold peaceful assemblies to redress grievances and legitimate demands as prescribed in the Philippine Constitution; and the unnecessary anti-terror bill which considers legitimate political dissent as an act of terrorism. Alarming to note also is the wave of ruthless killings, enforced disappearances and massive displacement of communities resulting into a clear pattern of repression and destroying the people’s efforts to have a life of abundance and dignity.

Aside from the fact that the country is divided into several islands where cultural barriers are real, disunity roots from severe disillusionment caused by economic deprivation and, corollary, the people’s feeling of powerlessness due to intense oppression and exploitation.

The Philippines is rich, the Filipinos are poor

The Philippines is located in Southeast Asia, just above the equatorial line. It is surrounded by oceans: in the east by the Pacific Ocean, in the west by the South China Sea and in the north by the Bashi Strait and in the south by the Sulu and Celebes Seas. The Philippines is made up of 7,100 islands, big and small. It is a country overflowing with natural resources. Foremost of these is land, which is important to an agricultural country such as the Philippines. The Philippines has a total land area of 30 million hectares of which 13 million hectares is agricultural land. 5.1 million hectares is devoted for rice and corn while 3.3 million hectares is planted with coconut and the rest is planted with other crops banana, pineapple, etc. Alluvial soils that make up most of the land are rich in minerals and can grow almost any crop. The Philippines is surrounded by 1,600,000 square kilometers of territorial waters. These are home to some 2,100 fish species. But in spite of its abundance, the majority of the Filipinos are poor.

A Church Committed to Community Development

Iglesia Filipina Independiente...
A Church committed to community development

A glimpse of the past...

When Iglesia Filipina Independiente was proclaimed by the first confederation of labor unions in the Philippines, the Union Obrera Democratica, on August 3, 1902, it's forst Supreme Bishop declared: "the church is the product of the peoples desire for liberty and development as a people and as a nation." It can be recalled that the historical context when the Church was established is within the continuing struggle of the Filipino people for a free and independent nation, hence in the midst of the early members of the IFI, human development is one of it's primarily concern. The IFI, conscious of its mission and historical vocation, is concerned and believe that it mnust get involved and participate actively in human development for this is the imperative of the Gospel.

The Iglesia Filipina Independiente perceives development:

* as a continuing process and growth towards fulfillment in accordance with God's will;
* As the peoples concrete response to God's initiative in His continuing work of creation;
* As means of uplifting human dignity towards self-reliance, self-governance and self-propagation;
* As reaffirmation of the historical and cultural heritage of the Filipino Church.

It is essential task of the church to promote the good of everyone, of the whole person, and of the whole human community. This concern for human development is an expression of faith. IFI believe that persons humanity is God's gift and it is our responsibility to preserve and uphold it.

For the IGlesia Filipina Independiente, the church missionary presence in the world is her being the Salt, the Light, the Leaven (Mt. 5:13-15), in the same process and manner that the Filipino people "may have life and have it abundantly" (John 10:10b). Therefore, development of people is nourishing them to enhance the potentialities God has bestowed upon them so that they may enjoy life and have it abundantly and to enable them to share such abundance with their fellow beings.

The IFI is so specific with her development concept. Conscious that it is an imperative for her to transform concepts into actions; she has to undertake development programs as an expression of its commitment to social action. In 1989, as a concrete response to fulfill her mission to be relevant to the Philippine society, the IFI Bishops in the Visayas and Mindanao dioceses decided to establish a community development program the IFI-Visayas Mindanao Regional Office for Development (IFI-VIMROD).