CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – The government’s plan to distribute lands via “tambiolo” at Hacienda Luisita demeans the “life and death struggle” of the beneficiaries.
This lament was aired yesterday by the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) after Agrarian Reform Sec.Virgilio Delos Reyes announced that the distribution of Hacienda lands through a raffle draw.
This, even as the farmworkers launched yesterday protest activities at Hacienda Luisita, as the DAR started to raffle off award certificates in one barangay in the hacienda.
“The method planned by the Depart of Agrarian Reform (DAR) is very unscientific, foolish, and idiotic,” KMP Secretary General Antonio Flores said.
Flores said “the ‘tambiolo’ land reform shows that the Aquino government is not serious in distributing Hacienda Luisita lands to farm workers.”
“It is an insult to the life and death struggle of Hacienda Luisita farm workers for genuine land reform. It also proves that the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) is a sham,” he added.
De Los Reyes earlier said a “tambiolo,” or a lottery drum would be used in raffling off farmlands in the hacienda, which had been owned by the President’s family until the Supreme Court ordered with finality the distribution of the vast estate to the farmworkers.
He said it would be a “crucial step” in generating the Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOAs) that would be given to qualified farm workers in Hacienda Luisita “possibly between August and September.”
But Flores said “the identification of size and location of lands to be distributed should be closely coordinated to farm workers for smooth, orderly, and proper distribution.”
He said “the tambiolo imposition by the DAR must be opposed and defied because it serves the Cojuangco-Aquino’s interest to divide the ranks of the farm workers.”
“The DAR and the Cojuangco-Aquinos never run out of political maneuver to deceive the farm workers and evade land distribution. This latest maneuver is the most stupid way we have seen so far in the DAR’s sabotage operations in the supposed distribution of Hacienda Luisita,” said Flores.
“It concretely shows the DAR’s bias against the farm workers and puppetry to the President and the Cojuangco family. These highly-paid people in the DAR cannot be trusted,” Flores said.
