ANGELES CITY – The Alyansa ng Manggagawang bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (Ambala) and the Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luson (AMGL) decried as harassment yesterday charges of grave coercion and illegal occupation of property filed against them by the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC).
Ambala chairperson Felix Nacpil Jr. said the case involved some 184 hectares in Barangay Balete within the Cojuangco-Aquino family-owned Hacienda Luisita which the Supreme Court, in a verdict on Nov. 22 last year, awarded to the farmers.
“We decry RCBC’s criminalization of agrarian cases involving the lands it claims at Barangay Balete. We are determined to fight and assert our rights as legitimate owners also of the 500 hectares of land being claimed by Luisita Realty Corp. (LRC), Luisita Industrial Park Co. (Lipco) and RCBC,” he said.
Over five years ago, some 184 of the 500 hectares were turned over by the Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) to RCBC as payment for a loan.
In protest, the farmers started what they called “bungkalan” project by farming in the area.
Last Jan. 5, Ambala petitioned the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to revoke its order six years ago converting the 500 hectares from being classified as agricultural to industrial. The DAR has yet to decide on the petition.
“The RCBC has filed grave coercion and occupation of real property against 23 leaders and members of Ambala after we cultivated the land starting July last year. We strongly believe that it was pure harassment to demoralize the struggling farmworkers,” Nacpil said.
Ambala and AMGL said in a joint statement that the criminal charges could be part of a ploy to coerce farmer-beneficiaries of land reform covering 4,915 hectares in the hacienda.
The statement said that even the leaders of the United Luisita Workers’ Union (Ulwu) leaders and their sympathizer Tarlac City Councilor Emmie Ladera reported being harassed.
The farmer groups also accused the Cojuangco-Aquino clan of backing the RCBC in filing charges against their officers and members.
AMGL chairperson Joseph Canlas recalled that in October last year, some 60 army soldiers allegedly summoned by RCBC failed to dismantle camp-out structures built by the farmers tilling the lands of the RCBC.
“We are preparing for the worst in the RCBC case, as they are powerful and influential and the courts could easily decide on their favor. We are consolidating our members so that they would not fall into the Cojuangco-Aquino’s coercive moves,” Nacpil said.
Canlas said that should the court would favor RCBC, “we would mobilize all our members in the region, to defend the camp-out.”
He also called on “our supporters in Metro Manila to immediately protest at the RCBC main office in Makati if the harassment of farmers will continue.”
“RCBC is playing with fire, it should realize that the farmworkers have endured the violent massacre in 2004, thus, plain issuance of warrants or whatever would not cow and derail them from occupying the hacienda, it is inviting the farmers’ wrath to fall on their Makati office,” he said.
