Supreme Court asked: Lift TRO on Hacienda Luisita

MANILA, Philippines - Farmers in Hacienda Luisita owned by the family of former President Corazon Aquino asked the Supreme Court (SC) to lift its temporary restraining order (TRO) on the distribution of the 6,453-hectare estate in Tarlac.

The farmers argued that the TRO issued by the SC on June 14, 2006 has been prolonging the agony of agrarian reform beneficiaries in sugar lands.

The farmers were represented by the United Luisita Workers Union (ULWU) and Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Luisita (Ambala) and their supporters from the Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon (AMGL) and Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA).

The SC, they said, “is legally, morally and politically mandated to carry out the cause for agrarian justice and social emancipation. However, the TRO it issued… counters this mandate at the expense of landless farm workers.”

The SC’s Third Division then instructed the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) and Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman to refrain from distributing Hacienda Luisita to the farm workers.

It also ordered Hacienda Luisita Inc. to post a cash bond of P5 million for the restraining order.

The TRO stemmed from a petition filed by Hacienda Luisita Inc. questioning PARC Resolution No. 2005-32-10 dated Dec. 22, 2005, which upheld a Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) order revoking the stock distribution option (SDO) plan of the Hacienda Luisita management.

The SDO enabled Hacienda Luisita and other huge landholdings to escape coverage under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

Hacienda Luisita was exempted from CARP distribution by placing the 6,453-hectare sugar estate under the SDO, a non-land transfer scheme that converted sugar workers into stockholders and daily workers receiving P9.50 per day without any share in the gross sales.

In its 2005 decision, however, the PARC placed the entire Hacienda Luisita under compulsory acquisition, earmarking some P15 billion for the acquisition of the sugar estate.

“In the name of truth and social justice, we demand the Supreme Court to immediately lift the TRO and instruct PARC and DAR to effectively carry out the free distribution of Hacienda Luisita to farm workers,” AMGL chairman Joseph Canlas said.

Canlas and 33 other sugar workers led a silent protest outside the SC gate on Padre Faura in Manila the other day to call for the immediate lifting of the TRO.