CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Hacienda Luisita farm workers and their supporters braced yesterday for a march-caravan to Malacanang with a call for the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to scrap a “pro Cojuangco promissory note” to compensate Pres. Aquino’s family before lands could be distributed to them at the hacienda in Tarlac.
The Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (Ambala) and the United Luisita Workers Union (ULWU) said they will start today their ”Lakbayan para sa Libreng Pamamahagi ng Lupa sa Hacienda Luisita” to mark the first year of the Supreme Court’s decision ordering the distribution of Hacienda Luisita lands.
“We urge DAR to immediately stop putting roadblocks to the distribution of Hacienda Luisita. Delos Reyes should scrap this pro-Cojuangco promissory note,” said ULWU chairperson Lito Bais.
He said the DAR’s so-called promissory note is “the latest in the series of political maneuvers by the Cojuangcos to evade land distribution.”
Last March, Agrarian Reform Sec. Virgilio Delos Reyes said that farmer beneficiaries of Hacienda Luisita would get their lands only after signing a written commitment to compensate the President’s family which used to own the hacienda until the Supreme Court ordered land distribution in the estate last year.
“Let me remind De los Reyes that the Cojuangcos still owe us a total of P1.33 billion,” Bais said, referring to the amount cited by the Supreme Court in ordering the Cojuangco-controlled Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) to pay the farmworkers proceeds from the sale of some 200 hectares of hacienda lands to third parties.
Kilusan ng Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) deputy secretary general Willy Marbella said that “after the landlord-dictated list of beneficiaries that includes Cojuangco loyalists, now comes this promissory note forcing Hacienda Luisita farmworkers to pay for the land that the Cojuangcos have benefitted from for more than half a century and have long paid for by the farmworkers.”
“This promissory note by the DAR will pave the way for big landlords across the country to follow the Cojuangcos lead,” Marbella said.
The KMP urged free distribution of Hacienda Luisita insisting that “the farm workers 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.”
He also noted that “the Cojuangcos did not pay for the Central Bank-guaranteed loan for the acquisition of Hacienda Luisita in 1957 from Tabacalera,” adding that “during Cory’s time, the Cojuangcos maneuvered to dismiss the civil case against them with the Central Bank and GSIS having no objection to the dismissal due to the assumption that the lands would be distributed to farm workers.”
“The free distribution of Hacienda Luisita is absolutely just and legitimate,” he stressed.
Members of Ambala and ULWU are set to start today their march-caravan from San Miguel, Tarlac to San Fernando, Pampanga. On April 26, the farm workers are set to hold a caravan from San Fernando to the Department of Agrarian Reform in Quezon City
On Saturday, April 27, the farm workers will directly air their demands to President Aquino by proceeding to the Aquino residence at Times Street before marching to Mendiola Bridge.
