CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – The Supreme Court has ordered Hacienda Luisita lands distributed to farmers.
Three unions of farmers and workers at Hacienda Luisita launched yesterday “Luisita Watch” nationwide in their bid to “make sure” the decision of the Supreme Court to distribute hacienda lands to them is not frustrated.
United Luisita Workers’ Union (ULWU) president Lito Bais, in a telephone interview with Punto, said the hacienda farmers are both “happy and wary.”
The ULWU, the Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Magbubukid ng Asyenda Luisita (Ambala) and the Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA), in a joint statement yesterday, expressed fears that the high court’s decision could be “frustrated by legal maneuvers” of the Cojuango-Aquino family.”
“We are launching nationwide the “Luisita Watch” campaign to make sure the decision of the high tribunal to distribute more than 4,000 hectares is implemented, and also to frustrate whatever legal maneuvers and sinister agenda the Cojuangco-Aquino clan has in mind to spoil the decision,” the statement said.
“What we’ll do now is to scrutinize the decision of the High Court and see how we will proceed with the land distribution,” Bais said.
He noted that hacienda farmers have pending meetings with officials of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) on the land issue in the hacienda.
“We can not relax. There are still things that should be of concern. The Cojuangcos can still appeal to the Court for reconsideration,” Bais added.
Bais said the high court’s decision should have bearing the criminal case filed against hacienda farmers for their “Bungkalan” project that involved planting crops in some 44 hectares of the hacienda sold by the Cojuangcos to RCBC.
The joint statement cited reports that in a 56-page decision promulgated and penned by Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr., the high court junked the stock distribution option (SDO) at the hacienda and instead ordered DAR to distribute 4,915 hectares of the sugar estate to them.
The statement also noted that SC was also reported to have ordered the Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) management to pay beneficiaries P 1.3 B broken as follows: P 500 million for the sale of 200 hectares of land in 1996, P 750 million for the sale of Luisita Industrial Park and another P 80 million from the sale of 80 hectare lot for Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX) road network.
The joint statement of Luisita farmers noted that “generations of farm workers in Hacienda Luisita struggled hard for the free distribution of the sugar estate immorally and illegally acquired by the family of President Benigno Simeon Aquino III.”
“Since 1957, the vast hectares of sugar lands was a silent witness to the red carpet exploitation of farm workers inside the Cojuangco-Aquino estate. It is high time to free the farmers and the land from the feudal aristocracy and slavery of the Cojuangco-Aquino camp,” the statement said.
The statement stressed that “the Luisita Watch campaign is the just the beginning of another episode in the continuing fight for free land distribution and social justice.”
UMA secretary general Rodel Mesa said the Luisita Watch “political campaign” is being spearheaded by UMA chapters and agricultural worker groups in Cagayan Valley, Batangas, Negros sugar worker associations and other farm worker groups in Southern Mindanao, Northern Mindanao and Far South Mindanao regions.
“It will be supported by staunch allies Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), fisherfolk alliance Pamalakaya, the peasant women federation Amihan and the agrarian NGO group Sentro Para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo (Sentra),” he said.
Mesa said hacienda farmers expected the President to oppose the Supreme Court ruling. “During the 75th anniversary of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the President issued a statement that he would defy any lawful order as long as it is biased against his family and that he would use his popularity in the name of what he believed right and just,” he added.
Records would show that in 1957, the Government Service Insurance System approved a loan sought by the Cojuangcos to purchase the Hacienda Luisita, but on condition that after 10 years, or in 1967, the lands would be distributed to its tillers.
