CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – The manner of distributing lands to beneficiaries in Hacienda Luisita is a form of corruption being tolerated by Pres. Aquino, the militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said yesterday.
KMP Deputy Secretary General Randall Echanis said the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) valuation of at least P70,000 per hectare at the estate owned by the President’s family is “way beyond the 1989 valuation of Hacienda Luisita that was pegged by the Cojuangcos themselves at P40,000 per hectare.”
He noted that the LBP has already advanced part of the supposed compensation for the President’s family for land reform at the hacienda even as the farmer beneficiaries are being told to sign the so-called Application to Purchase and Farmer’s Undertaking (APFU) to make sure they would pay the amount already advanced to the Cojuangcos as compensation.
“The President’s family was already compensated over the years through the hard labor of the farm workers,” Echanis said.
Echanis also bewailed the statement of Agrarian Reform Sec. Virgilio De los Reyes saying that the refusal of any farmer-beneficiary to sign the APFU “is a ground to be stricken out of the list of beneficiaries and be replaced by other qualified beneficiaries.”
He also noted De los Reyes’ statement that “the APFU is a commitment to pay the land, make it productive and bind the beneficiaries to comply with agrarian reform laws”
“The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has no right to disqualify the farmworkers who defied the sham ‘tambiolo’ land reform and the signing of the APFU,” he said, referring to the raffle system employed by DAR to distribute the lands.
The KMP added that the 6,212 farmworkers of Hacienda Luisita “were again hoodwinked by the Cojuangco-Aquinos and the DAR” in pushing for the raffle and signing of lot allocation certificates (LAC) and APFU in the 10 villages of the Hacienda.
“It is only a matter of time before the farmworkers realize that they were deceived by the DAR and the Cojuangcos the second time around. This latest scheme of deception by the DAR and the Cojuangcos will surely trigger another agrarian unrest in Hacienda Luisita,” he warned.
Echanis also assailed the Cojuangco-controlled Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) for saying that it would go to court to determine the rate of interest payments on lands covered by agrarian reform in the hacienda.
“The move by HLI to question the interest rates for the so-called just compensation clearly demonstrates the Cojuanco-Aquino’s greed. They are not content with the compensation package declared by the DAR and the LBP,” he lamented.
“What about the interest of the P1.3 billion they owe the farmworkers as declared in the Supreme Court’s decision to have hacienda lands distributed? This amount represents their share in the previous sale of lands by the Cojuangcos in areas now occupied by the Luisita Industrial Park, RCBC and the Subic-Clark Tarlac Expressway,” he added.
“The DAR should stop threatening farmers with disqualification. The Cojuangcos should pay the farmworkers P1.3 billion and its interests,” Echanis stressed.
”Hacienda Luisita should be distributed for free,” Echanis said, noting that the order of the Supreme Court to compensate the landowner “does not automatically mean that farmers should pay amortization.”
