ANGELES CITY- Land reform beneficiaries at Hacienda Luisita said yesterday that former Land Transformation Office (LTO) chief Virginia Torres has been identified by “thugs” as having ordered the destruction of their collective farms at the hacienda the other day, a day after relatives of the so-called Luisita massacre petitioned the Ombudsman to reopen the 2004 case.
The Alyansa ng Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (Ambala) reported that “a collective farm cultivated in Barangay Mapalacsiao by residents including Violeta Basilio, mother of massacre victim Jhaivie, was destroyed early morning today (yesterday) on orders of Virginia Torres – ex-LTO chief and now sugarcane financier-agent working for the Cojuangco-Aquino family.”
It quoted one Domingo de la Cruz, one of those allegedly destroying the farms, as identifying Torres as the one who gave orders “to destroy all crops planted by Ambala and make way for a sugarcane seed bed.
Ambala also quoted De la Cruz as saying that Torres “controls all the farmlots under the ‘aryendo’ or lease system” in the hacienda. Under this system, the land reform beneficiaries who have no capital to make their farm productive are lured into leasing their lands reportedly to Torres.
Torres resigned from her post at the LTO last year after a video of her playing in a casino went viral in the internet. In 2012, the Supreme Court ordered land distribution at the hacienda then owned by the family of Pres. Aquino. The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) then distributed over 4,000 hectares to the farmworkers through raffle.
“Negotiations for agreements for the illicit aryendo system take place even in the barangay hall, where Department of Agrarian Reform offi cials and even Torres herself are spotted facilitating transactions,” Ambala said.
It noted that “destruction of farmers’ crops in Hacienda Luisita continue, after relatives of the 2004 massacre victims trooped to the Ombudsman’s Office in Quezon City last Monday to reopen investigation on the massacre case.”
Ambala accused Mapalacsiao barangay chair Rael Gatus as leading “thugs” charged with destroying farms developed by Ambala members. It said that the same group also destroyed the farm of Charlito Catalan, 68, but Ambala members helped him rebuild destroyed paddies, gather surviving seedlings, and replanting palay.
“We will never give up the fight for land and justice,” said Ambala Chair Florida Sibayan. Last Aug. 2, Gatus, escorted by two policemen and 10 other men allegedly hired by Torres, barged into the Ambala cooperative farm.
Using two tractors, they destroyed rice paddies made by the farmers.
