Luisita farmers commemorate 25th year of Mendiola massacre today

ANGELES CITY ,Philippines  – Hacienda Luisita workers and other farmers from Luzon will serve an “eviction notice” to President Aquino in Malacañang tomorrow to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the so-called Mendiola massacre.

The farmers planted a poster demanding the “immediate eviction” of the Cojuangco-Aquino family at the main gate of the Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) in Tarlac City yesterday, “in compliance with the Supreme Court’s decision last Nov. 22 awarding the lands to the farmers.”

Members of the Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (Ambala), the United Luisita Workers Union (ULWU) and their mother federation Unyon ng Mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) will converge at the Mendiola Bridge in Manila tomorrow, the same site where 13 farmers were killed during a rally dispersal on Jan. 22, 1987.

UMA secretary-general Rodel Mesa said aside from serving the “notice of eviction,” the hacienda workers “will also demand that President Aquino, the Cojuangco-Aquino family and the HLI management immediately pay them P1.33 billion representing their share from the previous sales of portions of Luisita lands to private interests and commercial groups.”

“The notice of eviction also covers the nullification of the 500 hectares of land including 184 hectares covered by Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) as these lands also belong to the farmers,” Mesa said.

He urged the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to reverse its earlier conversion of the classification of the land from agricultural to industrial and insisted that the President “has no choice but to withdraw illegal and immoral claims over Hacienda Luisita.”

He also decried the alleged trumped up charges filed by RCBC against leaders and members of Ambala.

“Aquino and his relatives, together with RCBC management, are in cahoots to sow climate of fear by charging us with baseless complaints. But we are ready to face the complaints tooth and nail,” he stressed.

Mesa said that the Nov. 22 verdict of the Supreme Court has taken away any legal right of the Cojuangco-Aquino clan on the sprawling sugar cane estate.

The Cojuangco-dominated HLI has a pending motion for reconsideration at the Supreme Court to offer stock distribution in lieu of land distribution at the hacienda.

It also petitioned the court for the lifting of a 10-year moratorium on the selling of hacienda lands, even as it questioned the order of the court to pay the farmers some P1.33 billion earned by HLI in the sale of some 500 hectares of hacienda agricultural lands which were converted into industrial zones.

Meanwhile, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) has called on Chief Justice Renato Corona to revisit the Mendiola massacre case so that “justice is served to the victims.”

“We are mulling to file a petition before the SC (Supreme Court) that asks the reopening of the Mendiola massacre case. It is high-time for the Supreme Court to revisit its decision denying the victims and their families the justice they deserve,” said KMP secretary-general Danilo Ramos, adding that the perpetrators of the Mendiola massacre can no longer invoke state immunity from suit after 25 years.

In its March 19, 1993 decision, the SC cited the state’s immunity from suit in clearing the Cory Aquino government.

“The inescapable conclusion is that the State cannot be held civilly liable for the deaths that followed the incident,” it said.

“We hope that Chief Justice Corona and the justices will grant our petition,” Ramos said, emphasizing that there are bases to reopen the case because “even the SC order to indemnify the victims and relatives and recommendations to file charges against the perpetrators were not implemented by the then Aquino government and succeeding governments.”

On Jan. 22, 1987, anti-riot personnel from the Western Police District, the Integrated National Police and the Philippine Marines opened fire on thousands of peasants demanding “genuine land reform” under the first Aquino administration, killing several marchers.

Those who died in the incident were identified as Danilo Arjona, Leopoldo Alonzo, Adelfa Aribe, Dionisio Bautista, Roberto Caylao, Vicente Campomanes, Ronilo Dumanico, Dante Evangelio, Angelito Gutierrez, Rodrigo Grampan, Bernabe Laquindanum, Sonny Boy Perez, and Roberto Yumul. – With Rhodina Villanueva