christianized Chinese fathers. This group, unlike their fathers, was allowed to own land. U sually the agricultural land was leased to enterprising
Filipino and mestizo families of a nearby town. The lease-holders,
inquilinos, did not till the land but had the estates worked by tenants, called kasama in Candelaria. The estate owners collected rent from the inquilinos.
The rent was deducted from the crop, and the remaining harve st was
divided equally between the inquilinos and the kasama. The latter group,
2 This short history of Candelaria is based on interviews with Mrs. Stella de Guzman, the loeal historian in Candelaria.
3
"Indio" were of ten expressed tsunggo, whieh on the loeal language means monkey. This
indieate astrong in fluene e of raeism.
who actually produced the crop, did not advance in economic terms
whereas the non-cultivators did.
Coconuts were right from the beginning essential for the Spanish empire.
In 1642, every indio was directed to plant 200 coconut trees. The re as on
has been said to be a disaster caused by diminished local wheat harvests.
However, it is well-known that the Spanish galleons needed charcoal from coconut -shells for fuel and fibres from the coconut husks for ropes used in galleon rigs (LUSSA 1982). The export of coconut products started only in
the sec ond half of the 19th century and became vital only after the turn of
the century. At the beginning of the international coconut-trade, the Chinese population had alreadyestablished themselves as traders. The coconuts and copra were thus sold to the Chinese, who processed the nuts into crude coconut oil at their langisan, as the "oil mill" at that time was called. The nuts were left to rot and the oil extracted by letting it seep out of the rotten nuts piled up on wooden sticks. The oil was sent to Manila to be further refined. Even today, the smell of a coconut oil mill is peculiar, even if the raw material used is not rotten but dried. In those times, the odour of the
rotten coconuts made the elite seek other places for living whenever
possible, since the mills were centrally placed along the main road and near
the centre. Absentee landlordship thus became normal in the area. The
copra was made in tapahan, copra-dryers similar to the ones used today.These activities were concentrated in a few hands, usually in the traders.
This particular phenomenon of concentration of copra-making in a few hands, is different from other coconut producing areas in Southern Tagalog.
Normally the copra is dried by the tenant at his homestead and later sold
at the farm gate.
4.1.2 Contemporary socio-economic features
Coconuts are the dominant product of Candelaria. Approximately 50 per cent of the entire agricultural area is planted with coconut palms. The other
major crops are rice and maize, covering about 40 per cent of the agriculturalland in 1980.4 The population in Candelaria counted roughly
70,000 in 1991,5 of whom about 50 per cent were children and people
above 65 years. The working force is thus about 35,000 people. Various4 Since 1980 there might have been a slight decrease in the hectares used for coconuts due
to extensive logging.
5 Based on data from Republic of the Philippines (1981). The population estimate for 1990 is calculated by the population data for 1980 timed with average fertility rate of Quezon Province.
oral sources estimate that around 70 per cent of these are directly involved
in coconut production, while 5-10 per cent are involved in coconut
manufacturing alone. A vailable data shows that 4,310 coconut farmers and 2,873 coconut farms were found in Candelaria in 1988. The average
family-size is 6, and the father is usually the only one in the family who gets
registered as a breadwinner. It the approximately 2,000 people working inthe coconut factories are added, it could be conduded that about 50 per
cent of the population depends directly on coconut production for their survivaL. More farm workers are registered per farm in Candelaria than for
Quezon Province as a whole. The ratio of people tilling the coconut-land divided by the number of registered coconut-farms is 1.5: 1 in Candelaria
and 1: 1 in Quezon Province.
In 1980, 54 industrial units were recorded in Candelaria. The majority of these are small rice mills and family-based artisan production. Six of the industrial units were coconut oil mills and desiccated coconut factories. It is first of all the coconut factories that exceed small-scale production. The largest factory employs 1,100 workers alone. This factory, owned by the Peter Paul Philippine Corp., was the first industrial manufacturer in the area, established in 1946. It is one of the largest producers of desiccated
coconuts in the country. It also 'operates a private hospital, the on ly fire
station in the area and other service facilities. The manager as well as the director are American citizens.
Practically all children in Candelaria are enroled in primary school, but far from all finish primary school education (6 years). In 1980, 54 per cent enroled in secondary level education and 5 per cent enroled in tertiary level education, i.e. college.
Local private hospitals and doctors provide the only public health
services in Candelaria. These offer health services only to those who can afford to pay for it. The last noted epidemic in Candelaria, a typhoid fever, occurred in 1974. Malaria, tuberculosis and pneumonia are still common.
The local authorities con sider it impossible to provide a sufficient number
of health personneL. Hence, in the Development Plan from 1980 it was
recommended to:
(...) improve the quality of health care in every harangay through training of "hilots" and quack6 doctors (Repuhlic of the Philppines 1981, p. 131).
6 Both "hilots" and quack doetors are health workers without formal health education. In northern regions, near the American bases, "hilots" are known as "women-doctors", helping pregnant women with abortion, which is ilegal in the Philippines.
The population is generally poor, with a very high number of people below the official poverty-line. Malnourishment was found in 69 per cent of surveyed pre-school children in 1980 (Republic of the Philippines 1981).
According to local respondents, the economic situation has worsened during
the past decade. This corresponds to an overall de dine in export prices of
coconut products in the same period. The municipal papers condude that
the incidence of malnutrition was very common in the area where the
workers of Peter Paul Philippine Corporate Factory live. They note:Among the barangays, third degree malnutrition ranked high in Pahinga Norte due to a large number of the parents who work in the Peter Paul Philppines Corporate Factory. These parents often times neglect their children resulting in malnutrition and negligence (Republie of the Philppines 1981, p. 68).
4.2 The production of coconuts
The local authorities estimated the number of trees in Candelaria to be 1.9
million in 1988. Almost 5 per cent of these trees were unproductive,
probably from the manufacturing of alcoholic coconut liquor, lambanog.
The liquor is made of juice extracted from the coconut flower. Extraction of this juice prevents the nut from developing.
The production of coconuts does not require daily labour inputs. Roughly
seven labour days per harve st per hectare are normally required to maintain
production. Several tasks are undertaken by those producing the nuts: