DAR set to raffle off Hacienda Luisita land

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, Philippines – Farm workers at Hacienda Luisita said the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) is set to raffle off another 358 hectares allegedly to pave the way for more compensation for the Cojuangco family, on top of the P471.5 million already paid by the government to President Aquino’s clan.

The DAR posted last Dec. 29 in barangay halls in the estate a notice on the raffle for 1,700 more allegedly qualified land reform beneficiaries. The notice said the beneficiaries are to be interviewed starting today up to Feb. 5.

But the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said this development was a scheme to displace legitimate farm workers from the estate and designed to provide an alleged “pabaon” to the Cojuangco family as President Aquino’s term ends this year.

The KMP noted that the Cojuangco clan had received P471.5 million paid as compensation for 4,099 hectares of Hacienda Luisita.

“The money was sourced from the controversial and corruption-driven Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP),” it noted.

“In connivance with the Aquino-controlled DAR, the Cojuangco family will once again receive hundreds of millions of pesos for the 358 hectares amid the continuing stranglehold of the family over the whole hacienda,” KMP secretary general Antonio Flores said.

The KMP said the land to be raffled off covers 258 hectares in Barangay Balete and 100 hectares in Barangay Cutcut 2 that were actually under a Notice of Coverage belatedly issued by the DAR on Dec. 17, 2013.

Jobert Pahilga, executive trustee of the Sentro para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo (Sentra), said that the Supreme Court in 2012 ordered the distribution of all agricultural land in Hacienda Luisita after the court junked the DAR and the Cojuangcos’ maneuver to evade land distribution through the stock distribution option scheme.

The KMP earlier said that representatives of the Cojuangco family have been leasing back at low prices and over long terms hacienda lands already raffled off to farm workers.

The KMP called on Hacienda Luisita farm workers to resist and expose the brazen corruption of the Cojuangco-Aquino clan through intensified protests.