Morales lashes at KMP for about-face on CARP

The Department of Agarian Reform (DAR) lambasted yesterday the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) for taking a "360-turn" by suddenly defending the controversial Stock Distribution Option (SDO).

The SDO exempted Hacienda Luisita from the coverage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

"We find it very odd that the KMP, for all its militant posturings, is now suddenly becoming the defender of the SDO and Hacienda Luisita" DAR Secretary Horacio Morales said.

Morales ordered last month an investigation of the SDO in Hacienda Luisita after farmers complained that the plantation management has systematically marginalized the farmers through reduced working hours, non-payment of benefits and illegal conversion of large portions of the hacienda.

"The SDO scheme, which was instituted by former President Corazon Aquino during her term to prevent the parceling to farmers of her family estate, is one of the major reasons why the militant farmers’ group has labeled CARP as a sham," Morales said.

The KMP has recently come out with media statements denouncing Morales’ order to investigate the SDO scheme in Hacienda Luisita.

Morales assured the public that he has not singled out Hacienda Luisita in his probe on the SDO.

Meanwhile, a namesake of Cuban communist leader Fidel Castro, who chairs a militant peasant group in Tarlac said that Morales’ probe on Hacienda Luisita’s SDO arrangement is part of the alleged plot called "God Save the King."

"By all indications, the investigation on Hacienda Luisita’s SDO is not only an attack on the credibility of Cory Aquino, but also an attack on the militant people’s movement," said Fidel Castro of Concepcion, hometown of Mrs. Aquino’s martyred husband, former Sen. Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr.

Castro chairs the left-leaning Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Tarlac (AMT), the provincial affiliate of the militant KMP.

According to Castro, based on the updates on the implementation of "God Save the King," the Estrada administration has already accomplished the launching of a black propaganda campaign against opposition personalities like Mrs. Aquino and her younger brother, Jose "Peping" Cojuangco Jr. — With Benjie Villa