PARC denies Luisita motion for reconsideration on stock plan

A company that runs the sprawling sugar plantation owned by the family of former President Corazon Aquino suffered a setback yesterday after a panel of the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) upheld its decision that could pave the way for the distribution of the hacienda land to farmers.

The validation committee of PARC’s executive committee denied a motion filed by Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) asking the validation committee to reconsider its decision to revoke HLI’s stock distribution plan that the company wants in place of a government plan to distribute land to plantation workers under its Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

In a 16-page resolution issued on March 24, the validation committee, chaired by Justice Undersecretary Ernesto Pineda, upheld the PARC’s authority to resolve a dispute between Hacienda Luisita with its plantation workers, and for revoking the stock distribution plan that the PARC approved in 1987.

On Jan. 2, the HLI filed the motion for reconsideration with the validation committee questioning the PARC’s jurisdiction over the issue.

It argued that the courts should have jurisdiction because the company’s stock distribution plan was an agreement with its workers, therefore making it a corporate issue and not a land dispute.

But the PARC committee insisted on the council’s authority. It cited a memorandum issued by the Department of Justice on Oct. 27, 2005, which ruled that the PARC "is vested with the jurisdiction to resolve complaints involving the revocation of (stock distribution plan), and specifically on the matter on the instant HLI (SDP) issue."

"Moreover, the law and rules applicable are categorical with respect to the authority of the PARC to approve the (stock distribution plan)," the resolution stated.

"Further, the PARC can make its own independent evaluation and assessment of the (SDP) of the corporate landowner-applicant, and in prescribing other requirements," it said.

The PARC validation committee’s resolution also noted that the HLI appeared to have a "misappreciation" of the council’s recall decision on the stock plan.

It clarified that PARC Resolution No. 2005-32-01 cancelled its approval of the stock plan and not the HLI’s agreement with its farmers.

"Hence, the conclusion is unavoidable that the claim of HLI that subject PARC action was violative of substantive due process and of the non-impairment of the obligation of the contract clause, is misplaced," the committee resolution stated.

"Put simply, the recall/revocation resolution relates to the approval of the SDP (not of the memorandum of agreement for the SDP) of HLI... There was no intention whatsoever to interfere, disturb, change or alter said memorandum of agreement," it also said.

HLI lawyer Vigor Mendoza II expressed no surprise at the committee’s ruling.

He said they merely filed the motion for reconsideration before the PARC validation committees "as a matter of procedure."

"Our hopes, really, are pinned on the Supreme Court," where they had earlier filed a petition asking the High Tribunal to cancel the stock plan on the PARC’s decision and eventually parcel out the plantation to farmers.

"I just hope that the manifestation made by the (Department of Agrarian Reform) that they would not proceed yet on the distribution of the land pending the decision of the SC will not change in the wake of this resolution by the PARC validation committee," he added.

In a meeting on Dec. 20, 2005, the PARC approved a resolution of its executive committee canceling the HLI stock plan and put up Hacienda Luisita’s land for distribution under the government’s agrarian reform program.

The recall resolution was based on findings that the stock plan failed to improve the lives of Hacienda Luisita farmers despite its 16 years of implementation.

The Department of Agrarian Reform and the PARC said the stock plan defeated the intent of the government agrarian reform program, which was a centerpiece of the Aquino administration.

The PARC recalled its approval of the stock plan "before further harm, damage and ridicule to the sincerity and integrity of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program is irretrievably compromised."