Hacienda Luisita welcomes Supreme Court mediation panel

MANILA, Philippines - Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) welcomed yesterday the Supreme Court-created special mediation panel to help come up with an amicable settlement in the disputed implementation of the agrarian reform law in the vast tracts of sugarland in Tarlac co-owned by the family of President Aquino.

Fernando Cojuangco, chief executive officer of HLI, expressed his optimism yesterday over the creation of this special mediation panel as a step toward the much-desired resolution of this long-standing dispute.

“We certainly welcome this development,” Cojuangco told The STAR in an exclusive interview.

The pending court case involves the questioned stock distribution option (SDO) adopted in 1989 by the Cojuangco family-owned sugar plantation as mode of compliance with the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) Law instead of actual lands being distributed to farmer-beneficiaries.

Cojuangco though maintained they are sticking with their family policy to respect the decision of the majority of the farmer-beneficiaries who voted for SDO as their preferred mode.

“As has been our policy, what the people want, the family will abide by,” Cojuangco pointed out.

Cojuangco, first cousin of Mr. Aquino, particularly cited the results of the census last month that showed 8,401 of the 10,502 farmers of HLI signed the mutual settlement that provided them the choice to either choose the SDO or actual distribution of parcels of the 6,400 hectares of sugarland to the farmer-beneficiaries.

Of this number, 7,893 or 93 percent voted for SDO which was the original mode of compliance the farmer-beneficiaries signed in a memorandum of agreement with HLI in 1989.

Only 508 of the farmer beneficiaries, or 6.05 percent, voted for land distribution.

Cojuangco noted with satisfaction the SC appointment of three former justices to compose the special mediation panel. 

In a two-page resolution, the SC named retired Associate Justice Alicia Austria-Martinez as chair of the special mediation panel with retired Justices Hector Hofilena and Teresita Dy-Liacco Flores of the Court of Appeals as members. The SC also created a four-man secretariat to support the panel.

The creation of the mediation panel came about during the oral arguments on the case last Aug. 24 before the 15-man High Tribunal. With counsels of both sides present, Chief Justice Renato Corona ordered the use of mediation in trying to resolve the case pending submission of necessary memoranda from all parties concerned.

In the same SC hearing, the government opened its doors to the proposed compromise agreement that would resolve the case. Solicitor General Jose Anselmo Cadiz said the compromise deal submitted by HLI to the SC last Aug. 11 could be valid if it will be subjected to review by the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) and approval of a court-created alternative dispute resolution panel.   

Cadiz, who claimed that he was not instructed by President Aquino to speak in favor of HLI, said the government is willing to explore the compromise agreement “with the help of the Court.”

Under the CARP Law, the PARC is chaired by the President. Thus, President Aquino will be drawn into the matter once the SC approves the amicable settlement and it is submitted to the PARC for implementation. 

Also upon SC approval of the compromise agreement, HLI has committed to provide P150 million in financial assistance that will be given out in three tranches to the farmer-beneficiaries, to be determined by the number of shares held. HLI earlier released the first tranche of P20 million which was already distributed to the HLI farmer-beneficiaries.

According to HLI official spokesman Tony Ligon, the release of the second tranche of P30 million is dependent upon the ruling of the PARC on the compromise agreement.

Ligon said the balance of P100 million will be released once the SC approves the compromise agreement that would be worked out by the mediation panel between HLI and the farmer-beneficiaries.

The SC ordered the review of the HLI case four years after it issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) that stopped the previous PARC and Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) approval of the HLI compliance to the CARP law by SDO mode.