Luisita releasing P20 million to farmer-beneficiaries

MANILA, Philippines - The Cojuangco-owned Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) yesterday announced that it is releasing P20 million in financial assistance to legitimate farm worker-beneficiaries in keeping with the agreement signed between the HLI management and farmer-leaders.

“From day one, we have remained consistent on the primal concern of management, which is to uplift the lives of the farm workers through hearing and acting on what they really want. And with the distribution of the P20 million, we hope to spark productivity and source of revenue among them,” said HLI spokesman lawyer Tony Ligon.                              

Under the compromise agreement submitted to the Supreme Court, farm worker beneficiaries are given the option to stick to the stock distribution option contained in the memorandum of agreement of 1989 or claim parcels of agricultural land for their own cultivation.

Aside from the stock and land distribution option, a financial assistance worth P150 million shall be distributed to all beneficiaries on a staggered basis. 

A census conducted from Aug. 6 to Aug. 10 showed that 7,441 out of the 10,502 farmer-shareholders signed the compromise agreement.

Out of the total number of farmers, 7,302 preferred the stock distribution scheme, while 139 opted for the land distribution option.

“With the result of the census, we sincerely hope that the long-standing dispute within the estate will be finally resolved so that we can all move forward to more productive and peaceful years,” Ligon said.