ANGELES CITY – The farmers’ group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya ) urged the Supreme Court to just order land distribution at Hacienda Luisita, after Chief Administrator Jose Midas Marquez clarified that the high court never ordered a referendum on options for farmers at the vast property owned by the Cojuangco-Aquino family.
“What is the difference between a referendum and secret balloting? For us, asking farmers to vote on secret balloting whether they will stay as stockholders of Hacienda Luisita or they want agricultural land instead, is a de facto referendum,” said Pamalakaya Vice Chairman Salvador France.
France noted Marquez clarified recently that the Supreme Court did not order a “referendum” among farm workers at Hacienda Luisita when it revoked the stock distribution option (SDO) under the Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI).
Marquez was quoted to have said that the high court’s July 5 ruling did not require the 6,296 farm workers to vote on a common mode by which to pursue their ownership claims over the sprawling 6,453 hectare sugar estate under the government’s agrarian reform program.
France noted that “asking farm worker beneficiaries to participate in secret balloting on whether they prefer land or stocks is a de facto referendum.”
Pamalakaya maintained that “the best way to ensure social justice in Hacienda Luisita is for the high court to totally scrap the Stock Distribution Option (SDO ) and order the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to proceed with the free land distribution of the sugar estate to farm worker beneficiaries.”
“The SC should stop making things complicated, difficult and dangerous to thousands of farm worker beneficiaries in Hacienda Luisita.
The solution is clear and simple. Declare SDO illegal and unconstitutional and pave way for free land distribution. It is easy as ABC,” the group added.
