Responding to social media posts about hacienda farm workers who were appealing for their rightful wages at a conference with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on July 18, a labor NGO said that the government should investigate the hacienda’s wage scheme.

The Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) said that the complaint of Raffy Valentin, 43, about receiving a P2,500 wage every two weeks, and of 27 of his fellow farm workers, could indicate more grave labor rights violations in the hacienda and the sugar industry.

“Based on the re-posts, shares and reacts on social media, many workers and Filipinos sympathize with Mr. Valentin and his fellow workers. How could we not, when they are not even complaining about the back-breaking work in the hacienda, but are only appealing for what is due to them,” said Kamz Deligente, CTUHR executive director.

CTUHR said that the P2,500 fortnightly wage that Valentin receives is equal to P250 a day, less than half of the P520 legally-mandated minimum wage for farm workers in Western Visayas, and less than what Valentin, who is employed by the hacienda for 18 years, should receive.

“Mr. Valentin’s appeal should not be seen as an isolated case, an individual worker’s situation. The government should see it as possibly the tip of an iceberg, an indication of something bad and even worse in wages received by workers in an area of the economy that is usually not reached by government oversight,” said Deligente.

In the conference, Valentin also claimed that his employer, Hacienda Lolita in Cadiz, Negros Occidental, has refused to provide him and his fellow farm workers with 13^th month pay, benefits, and a 3% share of the Sugar Amelioration Bonus, forcing them and their families to subsist on a diet of dried fish.

“No one who works, and works hard, should go hungry. What Mr. Valentin is exposing is that all these laws and regulations and guidelines that the government claims to implement mean nothing in faraway haciendas in the country. This should not be the case,” Deligente stated.

The owner of Hacienda Lolita is Aurelio Gerardo J. Valderrama Jr. who is also president of the Confederation of Sugar Producers Associations (CONFED), The Sugar Association (TSA), and the VICMICO Planters Cooperative. In response to released a statement responding to the accusations made by Valentin and his fellow workers.

According to Valderrama’s legal counsel, “After the workers realized that they cannot question the documents legally, they resorted to social media hoping that they can pressure Mr. Valderrama into submitting to unreasonable and baseless demands.”
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“The government should really investigate Hacienda Lolita. How can giving workers a mere P250 a day and violating workers’ basic labor rights be legal? Is this a case where an employer can hide behind legal technicalities to violate workers’ rights? We demand an investigation and we demand a public report about the investigation results,” Deligente stated.