Widespread protests urged vs Luisita deal

MANILA, Philippines - A militant lawmaker called on farmers across the country to launch “widespread protests” to condemn the latest maneuver of President Aquino’s family to retain the stock distribution option (SDO) scheme at the Hacienda Luisita.

Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and Anak Pawis party-list Rep. Rafael Mariano also assailed the claim of Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) that “more than 90 percent” of its farmers elected to keep their shares under the SDO.

“The HLI’s statement only shows that the Hacienda is still stuck in the dark days of feudal aristocracy. Obviously, the Luisita farmers are not acting of their own will,” Mariano said. “The Cojuangco-Aquinos continuously act as feudal lords and treat farmers as their serfs that can be forced to do and sign anything, including a sham deal that retains the onerous SDO and the Cojuangco feudal lords’ ownership and control over the lands.”

He said “the continuing tyrannical and feudal rule by the Cojuanco-Aquinos in Hacienda Luisita and peasant emancipation are exactly the main reasons why Hacienda Luisita must be distributed to farmers.”The KMP is the biggest peasant group in the country, which claims to have 15 regional and 65 provincial chapters nationwide. Lito Bais, chair of the United Luisita Workers’ Union, claimed that the HLI management had the farm workers fetched from their houses for the three-day voting. “They were also promised money from the P20-million partial payment. Hacienda Luisita remains as a symbol of the failure of agrarian reform, of centuries-old feudal rule and exploitation, social injustice, and the symbol of the Filipino peasantry’s struggle in the entire country,” he said.Mariano said the Filipino peasantry should stage protest actions directed against Mr. Aquino to “condemn and frustrate the sham deal staged by the Cojuangco-Aquinos to keep the vast sugar estate.”“This brazen maneuver by the Cojuangco-Aquinos deserves the strongest condemnation from the Filipino peasantry. The Luisita sham deal sets the direction of Mr. Aquino’s land reform program under his administration – a continuing anti-farmer, pro-landlord and pro-agribusiness type of land reform,” he said.He maintained that “the President’s blessing” to his cousins was instrumental in retaining the SDO scheme under the sham deal and it “makes the President equally liable in the grand deception and denial of the farmers’ rights to the land.”

Senate hearing looms

Meanwhile, Sen. Gregorio Honasan, chairman of the Senate committee on agrarian reform, is calling for an inquiry in aid of legislation over the reported move of the HLI owners.While he is taking note of a pending case before the Supreme Court over the issue, Honasan said he is mulling the conduct of public hearings to hear the sides of all concerned sectors in the issue.He said the HLI is just one of the 20 corporate entities which has stakes in the Hacienda.Honasan, in an interview over dzBB radio, said that he is also meeting with new Agrarian Reform Sec. Virgilio de los Reyes regarding the matter.Honasan was chairman of the committee in the 14th Congress when the Senate extensively discussed the extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) in 2009.  Congress provided a P150-billion budget for the extended CARP law until June 30, 2014 which shall be funded from the Agrarian Reform Fund and other sources.The CARP Extension with Reforms  (CARPer) provides a five-year extension from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2014, for the final acquisition and distribution of all remaining undistributed agricultural lands. He said the Congressional Oversight Committee on Agrarian Reform is mandated by CARPer to look into the development of the program. He also emphasized that there is a need to get a performance report on the implementation of the country’s agrarian reform program.  Honasan, who spearheaded several coups during the Cory Aquino administration, expressed confidence that under the new administration of President Aquino the agrarian reform program will be fully realized. – Christina Mendez