Luisita owners overpaid by P167.5 M, says lawmaker

MANILA, Philippines - The owners of Hacienda Luisita, which the government has ordered distributed to tenant farmers, have been overpaid by P167.5 million, a party-list representative alleged yesterday.

“There has been an overpayment of over P167 million to the Cojuangcos,” said Alliance of Concerned Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio said.

The Cojuangcos are relatives of President Aquino on the side of his mother. The President has divested himself of any financial interest in the sugar plantation in Tarlac, the Aquinos’ and Cojuangcos’ home province.

Quoting Agrarian Reform Secretary Gil de los Reyes and Land Bank of the Philippines vice president for agrarian services Alex Lorayes, Tinio said the government has paid Hacienda Luisita owners a total of P471,501,417.98 for the 4,500.8 hectares being distributed to the farmers.

Tinio said the amount is broken down as P304,033,138.20 as the cost of the land based on the 1998 price valuation as ordered by the Supreme Court, or about P67,550.91 per hectare, and P167,468,278.78 as interest.

Tinio questioned the payment of interest, since he alleged that the Cojuangcos received the cash value of their property of more than P304 million.

He called the additional P167.5 million as “overpayment,” which he said the Cojuangcos should return to the government.

Under the land reform law, Tinio said a landowner has the option of receiving cash payment or 25 percent in cash and the rest in 10-year Landbank bonds with annual interest computed on the basis of prevailing treasury bill rates.

He said the government does not have to pay interest if the landowner chooses to receive full cash payment.

He added that in the case of Hacienda Luisita, the owners supposedly received full cash payment, plus interest.

Tinio and his militant colleagues have asked the House of Representatives to look into how the Cojuangcos have been compensated.

An agrarian reform undersecretary, Anthony Parungao, had said Aquino’s relatives received a combination of cash and Landbank bonds as payment for their land.

If this is true, the cash component should be about P76 million and Landbank would have to pay an annual interest for the bonds until they mature in 10 years, when they would be redeemed at face value.