Economic Perspectives on Everyday Life:

Analysis on Buwis Butil: A Documentary by Jay Taruc

'Buwis Butil,' a documentary by Jay Taruc in the TV Program I-witness, contextualizes

the issue of the terrible dispute between the armed forces and the protesting farmers and activists
in Kidapawan City last April of 2016 and the aggravating scenario of farmers facing rampant
starvation due to lack of food brought about by El Nino, and the inability of the government to
heed the people's needs. Furthermore, it emphasizes the clamor of the impoverished farmers and
narrates the true story of a family who struggled to survive in times of financial and food crisis.
The video also records the explanations of government officials as to why these scarcity in the
provision of food is met. Economics, as a social science, deals with our choices and the problem
of scarcity. Economic principles are utilized to analyze the different decisions and actions that
take place to absolutely understand how economics is germane in understanding the issues that
the country experiences.

In the beginning of the video, evident was the tragedy and chaos in the said event as the
protesters received violent and cruel response from the authority. Many were injured, and two
people died unfortunately which engendered the outburst of emotions not only of the victims'
relatives but also of the farmers from nearby towns and localities. From an economic
perspective, protests are not being held by people for no reason as such events cost them their
time, efforts, and a multitude of gatherings to plan how a particular protest will be done.
Additionally, it is the risk to their lives that will be the greatest cost of conducting a protest
against the government. But it's their hunger for justice that always motivates these individuals to
fight for their rights, most especially when they feel that the government does not pay attention
to the needs of these people.

To demonstrate how difficult life is for these farmers, Jay Taruc delved further into the
daily lives of the farmers. Astonishingly, he found a considerably painful reality as these farmers
have no choice in times of crisis and lack of food resource but to feed their families with
anything edible that can be found under the sun. For these farmers, the only hope is the presence
of rats living in the deep holes of the dried lands. For the majority of the elite people around the
world, food is not a problem. But apparently, these people's lives reveal a reality that only proves
how our government is unable to at least provide the basic needs of these people. The
opportunity cost of eating rats is not just the food security but the nutritional impacts of the food.
Many people may not choose to eat rats when they have no choice, but it is the rational choice.
Rats are edible, and these farmers have no choice but to feed their families with edible yet
lacking in nutritional content requirement for a healthy meal than to see them slowly weaken and
meet their deaths in the painful claws of starvation. The government emphasizes the significance
of health and consumption of nutritious foods through different programs in a sober manner, but
it is questionable why some people are not even provided the very basic food that they need.

Hoping to address the problem of El Nino, the farmers together with the government
resorted to cloud seeding. The opportunity cost of cloud seeding is not only the money that it
cost them but also the time that the event consumed.

The farmers also made a rational choice when they did not trash the corns that were not
ready for human consumption. Instead, they used the corns to feed their chickens.