Cory: Luisita probe a ‘retaliation’

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — Former President Corazon Aquino said the government’s move to look into the stock distribution option (SDO) scheme of Hacienda Luisita, which her family owns, is a clear case of "retaliation" against her for campaigning for the resignation of President Estrada.

"It’s very clear (that the case was meant to harass)," Mrs. Aquino said in an interview after she attended a huge rally seeking Mr. Estrada’s ouster in Barangay Magliman here last Saturday.

Agrarian Reform Secretary Horacio Morales has ordered an inquiry into Hacienda Luisita’s SDO scheme due to alleged violations of farmworkers’ rights by the Cojuangco clan.

Morales claimed many farmworkers at the sugar estate have been laid off, while large portions of land have been converted into commercial use without the consent of the farmer-beneficiaries.

"It’s clear that when you go against the President or the administration, you can expect some retaliation," Mrs. Aquino said.

She said, however, that she experienced no other forms of harassment since she came out in public to press for Mr. Estrada’s resignation.

"I don’t answer the telephone at home in the first place," she said.

Mrs. Aquino’s younger bro-ther, former Rep. Jose "Peping" Cojuangco, earlier had dismissed Morales’ allegations, saying that Morales and Mr. Estrada were the ones creating conflict where there was none.

The other day, Fernando Cojuangco, corporate legal counsel of Hacienda Luisita Inc., welcomed Morales’ order for a review of the hacienda’s SDO scheme.

"This will be an opportunity for us to formally (confront) the supposed complaints in a proper forum and enlighten the public on the true state of affairs in the hacienda," he said in a statement.

The SDO was adopted as another scheme for the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) launched during Mrs. Aquino’s incumbency.

Then Agrarian Reform Secretary Miriam Defensor-Santiago, now among the senator-jurors in the impeachment case against the President, backed the SDO scheme.

Some members of the United Luisita Workers’ Union alleged that the SDO scheme which called for the distribution of shares and 240-square-meter lots to 7,000 families employed by the sugar estate was not implemented.

Earlier, Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had warned of a "new chapter of political repression" amid the impeachment case against Mr. Estrada.

She cited the case of her chief of staff, lawyer Renato Corona, who reported that National Bureau of Investigation agents tried to enter his home in Quezon City recently, purportedly to do a background check in connection with his possible appointment to the judiciary.

Corona said, however, that he had never applied for any government position, adding that the incident was apparently meant to harass him because of his links to the opposition.