Farmers ask DOJ to form probe body on Luisita rights abuses

MANILA, Philippines - A group of farmworkers at the Hacieda Luisita in Tarlac have called on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to create a special task force that will look into the alleged human rights violations on the farmers.

Farmworkers' group Ambala said the DOJ has promised to form the special task force to probe into the allegations of abuses and harassment on the workers in Luisita, a vast sugar estate owned by the family of President Benigno Aquino III.

“We call on the Department of Justice to make good their promise of creating a special panel to look into rights violations against farmers in Hacienda Luisita. With the fragile situation in Luisita, this DOJ panel must start its work now,” Ambala acting chairperson Florida Sibayan said.

During a dialogue with Undersecretary Francisco Baraan at the DOJ last January 16, dozens of farmers submitted their individual affidavits, accusing the Cojuangcos, their henchmen, and the Tarlac police with grave threat, coercion, damage to property, physical injury, illegal arrest and detention and other violations.

Last January 28, five farmers who were arrested by the members of the Tarlac police last December for trying to stop Cojuangco bulldozers from destroying their crops
were charged with “direct assault to persons of authority.”

“Patung-patong na pananakot at pandarahas na po ang nararanasan ng mga magbubukid ng Luisita," Sibayan said.

Farmers Jose Baldiviano, Vicente Sambu, Ronald Sakay, Rod Acosta and Mamerto Mandigma were mauled and arrested last December 21 in Barangay Balete, Hacienda Luisita.

Ambala recently filed a motion to cite the Department of Agrarian Reform and Tarlac Development Corp. in contempt for undermining the Supreme Court decision on the hacienda dispute.