EP20 - Agrarian Change, Structural Adjustment and Crisis in the Philippines ft. JC Mercado

Introduction to Political Economy

The Philippines is one of the deadliest countries in the world to be an environmental or land-based activist. Its rural poverty and highly unequal landownership is maintained by military force, while the Philippines' farmers find themselves subordinated to unequal international agricultural trade policies. But the country also has vibrant and militant farmers' movements, the largest being the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) which seeks to address the land inequality, while the associated People's Coalition on Food Sovereignty (PCFS) targetx international agribusiness. What does the agrarian political economy of the Philippines look like? What form does land inequality and agrarian crisis take? What are the gendered dimensions of agrarian problems? And how does the country’s entry into the world markets and invitation of foreign investment under structural adjustment impact its agrarian political economy?

I'm joined by JC Mercado, an activist with the People's Coalition on Food Sovereignty and an associate of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Peasant Movement of the Philippines), to discuss these questions. This is the first of a two-part podcast.

Music by Zobu. Edited by Mhd. Ali.