(Photo grabbed from web)
ANGELES CITY – The Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Magbubukid ng Asyenda Luisita (Ambala) said about 90 percent of lands already distributed to farmworkers under land reform in Hacienda Luisita have reverted to the control of the Cojuangco and Lorenzo clans.
This, as the group “strongly condemned the alleged red-tagging of its officers and members by 3rd Mechanized Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army purportedly to protect the interest of the Cojuangco-Lorenzos.”
“At present, many are under threat of being dislocated from their farms in various barangays in Luisita to give way to land use conversion. About 90 percent of the distributed lands are again under the control of the Cojuangcos and Lorenzos under the scheme of lease and purchases in cahoots with dummies and other individuals,” Ambala said in a statement.
In 2012, the Supreme Court ordered the distribution of Hacienda Luisita’s 4,915-hectare agricultural lands to the original 6,296 beneficiaries under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). The hacienda used to be wholly owned by the Cojuangco family.
Two years later, entrepreneur Marin Lorenzo acquired majority control of Hacienda Luisita’s sugar refinery owned by the Cojuangcos, using a P2-billion loan. Later, he and Ayala Land announced the latter had obtained clearance from the Philippine Competition Commission to acquire for an undisclosed amount 290 hectares out of the 628-hectare Luisita complex within the refinery. The farmworkers said the said areas were supposed to be covered by CARP.
Last August, Pres. Duterte led in the distribution of supposedly the last 112 hectares in the last 10 barangays which have not been covered by CARP in the last administration.
Ambala, which elected only recently a new set of officers during a general assembly attended by some 300 representatives from barangays in Luisita, said hacienda folk have remained farm workers and casual laborers. “This is the real reason for the unrest in the hacienda amid the presence of soldiers protecting the interest of the Cojuangcos and Lorenzos,” the group also said.
The group said that last Sept. 25, the 3rd Mechanized Infantry Battalion organized a “peace forum” in Barangay Balete in the hacienda where the military allegedly linked Ambala with the New People’s Army. The soldiers also then organized another group of hacienda folk called Malaya.
Ambala, under its new chair Luning Trinidad, denied links to communists and the NPA, as she noted that it was under the leadership of Ambala and the former United Lusita Workers’ Union that the Supreme Court ordered land distribution in the hacienda formerly wholly owned by the Couangcos.
It noted that more than 1,000 hectares under the Tarlac Development Corp., Luisita Land Corp., and Central Azucarera de Tarlac haven’t been distributed to farm workers yet and remained under the control of the Cojuangcos and Lorenzos.
