ANGELES CITY – The reported plan of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to implement so-called “sugar block farming” at the Hacienda Luisita would keep the hold of Pres. Aquino’s family in the vast estate in Tarlac.
“The DAR’s so-called block farm project in Hacienda Luisita is another scheme by the DAR to perpetuate the Cojuangco-Aquino family’s control over the lands,” says Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) secretary general Antonio Flores.
The KMP issued the statement after reports said that the DAR will campaign for the implementation of “sugar block farms covering 30 and 50 hectares each that will be managed as one farm so that the activities on the small individual farms are aligned and implemented according to the plans of the whole block.”
Flores said that “under the guise of providing so-called support services, the DAR is paving the way for the President’s family to control the whole process of production.”
“It will give the Cojuangcos and their dummies power to dictate on farmers what crop to produce like sugarcane, where and when to plant, and where to sell their produce,” he said.
Earlier, the Supreme Court ordered land distribution at the hacienda which had been under the control of the President’s family since 1957.
Flores noted that “controlling the cycle of production is tantamount to controlling the lands.”
“Worse, the sugar block farming scheme maintains the feudal profit-sharing scheme similar to the notorious stock distribution option,” he added.
The KMP recalled the landmark ruling of the Supreme Court on Hacienda Luisita stating that “the policy on agrarian reform is that control over the agricultural land must always be in the hands of the farmers.”
“Instead of stopping the implementation of the stock distribution option (SDO) and other non-land transfer schemes after the Supreme Court decision, the DAR itself promotes these anti-peasants’ schemes that give control over the lands to landlords and agribusinesses under the guise of partnership, contract growing, joint ventures, foreign funding, and loans,” lamented Flores.
The KMP reiterated calls for the free distribution of Hacienda Luisita lands, insisting that “the farmworkers have long paid for the lands and the Cojuangco-Aquinos have enriched themselves for more than 55 years of illegal control and monopoly of the hacienda.”
The sugar block farming program was launched in other parts of the country in January last year, with 16 pilot block farms in 12 sugar-producing provinces, namely, Albay, Antique, Batangas, Bukidnon, Capiz, Davao del Sur, Iloilo, Leyte, Pampanga, Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, and other areas in Tarlac.
Under the program, DAR shoulders the cost of farm tractors and business development services while DA covers the development of irrigation facilities and improvement of farm-to-mill road.
The Sugar Regulatory Authority (SRA), on the other hand, handles agri-technology support and overall management of the block farms.
The KMP insisted “it is only just that the Hacienda Luisita lands be distributed to farm workers at no cost and the Cojuangcos not to be compensated. The farm workers have long paid for the lands with their sweat and blood. While the Cojuangco-Aquinos have enriched themselves for more than half a century now.”
“Besides, the Cojuangcos still owe the farm workers a total of P1.33 billion for their illegal sale of the 200 hectares of land in 1996, the Luisita Industrial Park, and the 80.51-hectare lot for the anomalous Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) road network,” Flores noted, referring to the Supreme Court decision ordering the Cojuangco-controlled Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) to pay the farm worker beneficiaries their share from the sales profits.
