It’s final: Luisita stock plan shelved

The Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) adopted yesterday the recommendation of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and voted with finality to revoke the stock distribution option (SDO) at the Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac.

This decision is expected to put to rest the land dispute surrounding the vast sugar estate owned by the family of former President Corazon Aquino and pave the way for the mandatory coverage of the 4,915-hectare landholding under the government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) in favor of farm worker-beneficiaries.

Management of Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) said it is poised to question the PARC resolution if they find it to be contrary to the law.

"The company is ready for any eventuality. We shall read the order and if it is contrary to law then we will seek relief from the proper authorities," HLI spokesman lawyer Vigor Mendoza told The Star.

PARC, the highest policy-making body of DAR, is chaired by President Arroyo, with DAR Secretary Nasser Pangandaman as co-chairman. It is composed of representatives from farmers’ groups, landowners and the secretaries of government departments implementing CARP.

The President, however, has inhibited herself from the matter, reportedly "so as not to put some political color on whatever decisions the PARC may render" and authorized Pangandaman to preside over the en banc meeting.

"The decision of the PARC is already final," said Pangandaman. And since the President has already inhibited herself from the council, the PARC resolution may no longer need her signature.

"So I would already issue the notice of coverage to Hacienda Luisita within this week, as soon as I receive the copy of the PARC resolution," the DAR chief said.

Should this happen, the largest sugar estate in Luzon would be up for distribution to farmer-beneficiaries and the Cojuangco family would lose control of the sprawling sugar plantation and sugar mill in Tarlac.

The DAR recommended the revocation of the SDO at Hacienda Luisita after its investigating team found that the HLI committed many violations in the implementation of the SDO.

Ultimately, the DAR said the SDO made the lives of the beneficiaries more miserable. Its implementation, it stressed, has become contrary to public policy, which is to promote the improvement of the lives and welfare of farmers. 

A validation committee was formed earlier by DAR and PARC to look into the legality of the scrapping of Luisita’s SDO and it later sent its recommendation to the PARC executive committee for final approval.

PARC’s final decision to cancel the SDO at the Hacienda Luisita was a result of voting late yesterday afternoon.

Landowner-representative Eduardo Hernandez was the only dissenter on the DAR recommendation while the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Office of the President-Office of the Executive Secretary (OP-OES) abstained, even though the latter voted in favor of the scrapping of the SDO during the PARC executive committee meeting.

The Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) and Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) were considered absent despite the presence of their respective representatives at the meeting.

The PARC meeting yesterday was supposed to be attended by Cabinet officials or department secretaries since the body was to decide with finality on a very controversial issue.

But the supposedly high-level meeting was snubbed by higher-ups and was attended predominantly by the same representatives of CARP-implementing government agencies who attended the PARC executive committee meeting last week.