Luisita now a militarized zone,

say farmers against land deal

By Leila B. Salaverria, Jocelyn Uy
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:55:00 08/12/2010

MANILA, Philippines—Church-backed farmers seeking the distribution of Hacienda

Luisita (HLI) to its tillers said Wednesday the sugar plantation had become a militarized
zone, prompting them to seek President Benigno Aquino III’s help in entering his
family’s estate to discuss freely a deal offered by his cousin managing the company.
“It is heavily militarized,” said Jobert Pahilga, a lawyer for the unions opposing the
stock distribution option (SDO), which HLI announced on Monday had been approved
by 70 percent of its 10,000 workers.
“Every barangay has a military detachment. The soldiers there said that outsiders are
not allowed to enter,” Pahilga said.
He said that union members, their lawyers and Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick
Pabillo had planned to enter the hacienda to discuss with workers the impact of the
SDO arrangement that they had approved.
“With the help of the Church, one of our suggestions is to relay to President Aquino
that he allow the farmers’ leaders and lawyers to go to the [Hacienda Luisita]
barangays to conduct a discussion on the compromise agreement. This is to help the
farm workers to understand their rights, what they give up, in agreeing to the
compromise deal,” Pahilga said in a phone interview.
He added that the groups also want the Department of Agrarian Reform to supervise
the discussions with Mr. Aquino’s cousin, Fernando Cojuangco, who is running HLI.
Pahilga said that Bishop Pabillo had been tasked with getting in touch with Mr. Aquino
to relay the request for access to the estate.
He said that in July, even before the compromise deal arose, the farmers’ groups had
tried to enter the HLI compound because they wanted to talk with the workers there in
preparation for the Aug. 18 oral arguments on the case in the Supreme Court over the
validity of the SDO.
But this did not happen, Pahilga said. Those known to oppose the owners of the HLI
were barred from entering the place, and even branded them as members of the
communist New People’s Army, he said.
Militarization denied
Lawyer Tony Ligon, the HLI spokesperson, denied Pahilga’s claim.
“It is not true. From the time the [settlement] process started, the presence of the
media was very apparent. How could it escape the scrutiny of the media if the military
was there?” Ligon said.
“I respect their observation, but what’s the basis?” he added.
As for the plan of the farmers’ groups to visit the farm workers to discuss the
implication of the settlement, Ligon said he was not in a position to allow it.
Pabillo, head of the National Secretariat for Social Action (Nassa) of the Catholic
Bishops Conference of the Philippines, said Wednesday that Mr. Aquino should at
least listen to the woes of the farmers who were apparently forced to sign the
compromise deal out of desperation.
“There is a need to hold a dialogue with the President for him to intervene in what is
happening at the Hacienda Luisita,” Pabillo said over the Catholic Church’s Radio
Veritas. “This issue is of national prayer and it has to do with land reform.”
Aquino can’t be neutral
In a press briefing Wednesday, Fr. Edwin Gariguez, Nassa executive secretary, also
disclosed that he was going to the proper channels close to Mr. Aquino to schedule the
dialogue.
Gariguez said the dialogue with Mr. Aquino was among the proposals that cropped up
when Felix Nacpil of the Manggagawang Bukid Sa Asyenda Luisita and Lito Bais,
acting president of the United Luisita Workers Union, met with Pabillo late Tuesday.
Christian Monsod, a volunteer lawyer for some of the farmers and a member of the
commission that drafted the 1987 Constitution, was also present during the meeting
the other day.
“The President cannot feign neutrality in this issue, for his silence and inaction will
mean an implicit endorsement of the unjust compromise deal orchestrated by the HLI,”
Gariguez said.
He also appealed that the forged agreement be set aside to allow a “genuine and
transparent” process of consultation with the farmers so they would understand the full
range of options available.
Sin of omission
Gariguez reminded Mr. Aquino that he would be committing a “sin of omission” if he
chose to stay quiet on the issue.
“He has the executive power to implement what is in the law… he could use his
political power in favor of the farmers,” he said.
Gariguez disclosed that Pabillo received on Tuesday night a text message from a union
leader reporting that he was being closely watched by soldiers patrolling the estate.
Gariguez appealed to the military not to take sides and to protect the welfare of the farmers
to prevent a repeat of the massacre in 2004, which left at least seven people dead.
Cojuangcos don’t want to let go
of the land
By Philip Tubeza
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:49:00 08/07/2010
MANILA, Philippines—It’s a world
turned upside down.

This was how lawyer Christian

Monsod, a member of the
Constitutional Commission that drafted
the 1987 Constitution, reacted to the
reported compromise deal that was
reached between the farm workers and
management of Hacienda Luisita, the
6,500-hectare sugar plantation in
Central Luzon owned by the
Cojuangco family of President Aquino.

“The bottom line is that the Cojuangcos do not want to let go of the land,” said Monsod,
who was himself helping to broker a deal between Hacienda Luisita Inc. and the
farmers, with the backing of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.

The deal runs counter to the “letter and spirit” of the 1987 Constitution which dictates
that agrarian reform lands should go to the farmers while landowners get just
compensation in return, according to Monsod.

“Now, it’s a world turned upside down with the landowners getting the land and farmers
getting the compensation. If you have economic and political power concentrated, you
can turn the world on its head,” he said.

The Supreme Court has scheduled a hearing for Aug. 18 on an HLI petition against the
implementation of a Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) and Department of
Agrarian Reform (DAR) directive canceling a stock distribution option (SDO)
agreement and ordering HLI to redistribute 4,915 hectares of the hacienda lands to the
farmers under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

Under the SDO scheme, the farm workers in 1989 agreed to take shares of stock
instead of land. They ended up owning 30 percent of HLI shares.
In 2004, however, the farmers petitioned the DAR to have the SDO canceled. After
seven workers were killed in a confrontation with soldiers and policemen on Nov. 16,
2004, the PARC ordered DAR to place 4,415 hectares of Hacienda Luisita under
CARP coverage.

The HLI succeeded in getting the Supreme Court to issue a restraining order in 2005.

Déjà vu

Monsod said he could not see any way by which the DAR and the Office of the
Solicitor General could change their positions. He would expect the two offices to
oppose the compromise deal, he said.

“I do not see how the DAR and the Office of the SolGen can consider this as a
settlement that will benefit the farmers. I suppose the SolGen and the DAR would
object to the compromise,” Monsod said.

He said the Cojuangcos were trying to preempt the Supreme Court from ruling on the
case with this reported compromise deal.

“This is déjà vu … They’re trying this so-called compromise to render the Supreme
Court case moot and academic,” Monsod said.

He said the Cojuangcos thought up the SDO scheme partly to escape a 1985 Manila
court decision, based on a Marcos-era petition, ordering them to distribute the land to
the farmers.

The Court of Appeals dismissed the case in 1988 after government lawyers
themselves moved to withdraw it, reasoning that the hacienda lands were supposed to
be distributed under the Aquino government’s agrarian reform program.

“Now that there’s another case that did not go their way, they’re trying this
compromise. Isn’t that déjà vu?” Monsod said.

He also questioned the new agreement’s provision that sets aside only 1,400 hectares,
or one-third of the hacienda’s land area, for distribution.

“If you look at the agrarian reform program, it says all the land should be given. How
come the farmers end up owning only one-third of it? That does not make sense. I
don’t see how that can be considered a compromise,” Monsod said.

Where’s the money?

Monsod said HLI also cannot claim that the farmers are only getting one-third of the
land because they owned only 33 percent of HLI shares under the SDO.
Monsod explained that the farmers were told in 1989 that they were getting only 33
percent of the shares because this was supposedly the equivalent value of the
hacienda land in the whole company.

“Now the farmers are getting only one-third of that land. I don’t understand that,” he
said.

Monsod also noted that HLI had argued in 1989 that the 4,900 hectares it put under
the SDO could not be distributed to the then 6,000 farmer-beneficiaries because they
would then be getting “less than one hectare.”

He said the management explained that each farmer getting less one hectare of land
was not economically viable for “large-scale sugar production.”

“But 15 years (after 1989), it turned out that that their (large-scale sugar plantation)
enterprise was not profitable. How can they lose money for 15 years?” Monsod said.

“In other words, it did not work as a justification for not distributing the land. It was
unfounded,” he said.

Getting away with it

And with the new settlement, farmers would now be getting small plots of land, Monsod
noted.

“So, who are they fooling? But they got away with it then,” he said.

Monsod said that because HLI was losing money, it set aside in 2004 around 500
hectares which it converted into an industrial park. They also used 184 hectares to pay
debts to the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.

“They earned P1.2 billion to pay off debts and make up for the losses but the farmers
only got P37.5 million because under the (SDO) they would only get a 3-percent share
of gross sales,” Monsod said.

“Where did the money go? And now they are again losing money,” he said.