ANGELES CITY – A farmers’ umbrella organization be lied yesterday accusations of Pres. Aquino’s uncle Jose “Peping” Cojuangco, Jr. that “leftist outsiders” are agitating workers at the Hacienda Luisita.
Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luson (AMGL) chairman Joseph Canlas, in an interview with Punto, accused the Cojuangcos of being the “real outsider” at the hacienda which, he insisted, should have been turned over to the farmers way back in 1967.
“The Cojuangcos are always in amnesia about how they acquired the land,” he said.
Canlas was reacting to the statement of Cojuangco, the elder brother of the President’s late mother former Pres. Corazon Aquino, that “leftists”, who allegedly want to overthrow the Aquino government, are those instigating trouble at the hacienda.
Cojuangco said hacienda workers themselves had already manifested their will in a referendum during the presidency of his sister indicating 96 percent of them favored stock distribution option (SDO) to land distribution.
But Canlas said that “the Cojuangco-Aquinos are the real outsiders at Hacienda Luisita as they have never stepped on the mud, dripped sweat and labored on the land.
Felix Nacpil, the late Federico Laza, Boy Dizon, the Laderas, the ancestors of Rene Galang, Lito Bais, Rodel Mesa and many others are the original developers of the land,” Canlas said.
He accused the Cojuangco-Aquinos of being the “troublemakers” at the hacienda as they are” the ones who deploy forces of the military such as the army’s 70th Infantry Battalion to terrorize the farmworkers.”
“We have the right and duty to support the farmers of Hacienda Luisita, as their struggle for genuine land reform is also ours. They are our members and we have responsibility to reinforce their struggle,” he added.
Canlas noted that the Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (AMBALA) is under the umbrella of AMGL.
The land issue at the hacienda surfaced anew after the Supreme Court issued a verdict last July 5 junking a verdict of Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) and the DAR in 2005 revoking SDO.
The high court also ordered the holding of another referendum among the hacienda’s 6,000 workers to determine their preference between land distribution and SDO.
Canlas said the history of the hacienda could prove that the Cojuangcos are the outsiders. “The Cojuangcos used public funds to acquire Hacienda Luisita in 1957 with the condition that it would be distributed to the farm workers in 10 years,” he recalled.
Loan from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) was used for the purchase.
