Government set to appeal SC ruling on Luisita

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) will file a motion for reconsideration before the Supreme Court (SC) regarding a recent order directing the agency to hold a referendum at the Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac that will ask farmer-beneficiaries to choose between land or stocks.

The Alyansa ng Manggagawang Magbubukid ng Asyenda Luisita (AMBALA), meanwhile, announced yesterday it would hold an indefinite “campout” at the DAR central office to dramatize its demand for the department to refrain from holding any referendum.

“There is no gray area in what the law says about the stock distribution option (SDO). If it fails, the only option is to give the lands, to pave the way for the distribution of agricultural lands to Hacienda Luisita farmers,” said Agrarian Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes in a news conference.

Together with Solicitor General Joel Cadiz, De los Reyes stated they are asking the high court to take a closer look at the case.

In a decision last July 5, the SC invalidated the stock distribution plan of the Cojuangco-owned Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) over the 4,915.75-hectare portion of the sugarcane plantation but still decided to put the disputed land to another referendum to allow the original 6,296 farmworker-beneficiaries to choose between stocks and parcels of land.

The SC upheld with modification the Dec. 22, 2005 resolution of the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) that revoked the stock distribution plan and denied the petition of the HLI.

Cadiz said that the motion for reconsideration is based on Section 31 of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Act of 1988 or Republic Act 6657, which stated, “If within two years from the approval of this Act, the land or stock transfer envisioned above is not made or realized or the plan for such stock distribution approved by the PARC within the same period, the agricultural land of the corporate owners or the corporations shall be subject to the compulsory coverage of this Act.”

“Following this provision, the disputed Hacienda Luisita land should have been distributed to the farmers in 1990 and coinciding that the SC itself ruled that the stock distribution plan was flawed from the start,” Cadiz said.

De los Reyes said that the DAR will explain to the farmers the department’s action on the SC decision.

“With regard to the news that they plan to boycott the court’s decision, we need to tell them about our appeal before they make an unnecessary action. The DAR believes that lands, not share of stocks, should be given to the farmers. The law itself called for the distribution of the land. The PARC, in its 2005 Resolution, revoked the stock distribution plan of HLI precisely because, among others, of its failure to distribute the appropriate shares of stocks within the prescribed period. The law is not silent as to the effect of revocation, in fact the law prescribed and we are bound by this law,” the DAR chief said.

DAR public affairs director Hugo Yonzon III pointed out that the DAR is not taking sides but just following the law.

The motion for reconsideration will be filed within the 15-day allowable period.

HLI workers want land, nothing else

But AMBALA would want nothing less than a definitive action for the agency, insisting that land distribution at the hacienda remains the only legal option with historical basis.

“The DAR’s mandate is to process land distribution and not organize such referendum that is totally contradictory to land reform,” said Joseph Canlas, chairman of the Alyansang Magbubukid ng Gitnang Luson (AMGL), the umbrella organization of AMBALA.

The group vowed to continue with their actions “if DAR push through with the referendum,” and urged the agency’s officials “to apply caution because the department should actually be pushing its decision to revoke the stock distribution option as it had decided through the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council Resolution 2005-32-01.”

“DAR should defend its earlier decision against the stock distribution option and not contradict itself,” Canlas said.

He noted that Chief Justice Renato Corona opposed the high court’s July 5 decision, arguing “that agrarian reform means land distribution and absence of such would lead to a social volcano.”

Canlas said that while the President had vowed to keep off the issue, the holding of a referendum already has mechanisms to favor the Cojuangco-Aquino family.

“The referendum has no check-and-balance mechanism and has no guiding and thus could be readily manipulated,” Canlas said.

According to the group, the Cojuangcos purchased the hacienda in 1958 through a loan from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and Manufacturers’ Trust Co. of New York, guaranteed by the Central Bank of the Philippines.

“This was under the condition that the lands would be under agrarian reform in 10 years’ time under the framework of the government’s social justice program,” Canlas said.

P-Noy maintains hands-off policy

Meanwhile, Malacañang said President Aquino is aware of and has approved the decision of the government to appeal the Supreme Court decision revoking the stock option deal HLI management gave its farmer-beneficiaries.

“The President is aware of the steps that are being taken by the Department of Agrarian Reform and by the Office of the Solicitor General,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said, referring to the motion for reconsideration the government will file.

“I know this (filing of appeal) was discussed with him (Aquino). The position was discussed with the President,” she explained further, which was contradictory to the statement of her boss, spokesman Edwin Lacierda, who said that they will be declaring a hands-off policy.

Lacierda said it would be up to Secretary De los Reyes and SolGen Cadiz to decide on what legal strategy the government will take on the issue.

“Number one, the President has already divested his shares (in HLI). Number two, all the more that there is an SC decision, that decision must be observed,” Lacierda added.

Valte reiterated that the position of the President with regard to the hacienda has not changed from the very start.

“The President has always taken the position that he is after the welfare of the greater number of DAR beneficiaries. That has always been the position of the President, and he is aware of the steps being undertaken by the DAR and by the OSG,” Valte said. – Ding Cervantes, Delon Porcalla