Corona orders review of Luisita labor case

MANILA, Philippines - Chief Justice Renato Corona has ordered a review of the long-standing labor dispute involving the vast estate of the family of president-elect Benigno Aquino III in Tarlac.

Aquino does not recognize Corona’s appointment.

Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez said Corona has received a letter from farmers in Hacienda Luisita for him to act on the case and review the four-year-old temporary restraining order (TRO) against the distribution of the sugar plantation in accordance with the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

“We humbly submit to your Honorable Office our appeal asking the Supreme Court to act with dispatch and resolve the controversial agrarian case of Hacienda Luisita in favor of agrarian reform beneficiaries,” read the letter signed by leaders of the Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura.

The farmers asked Corona to recall the TRO issued by the SC in June 2006, which stopped the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council and Department of Agrarian Reform from revoking the stock distribution option offered by the Cojuangco-Aquino family and distributing the 6,453-hectare sugar plantation to them.

“Honorable Chief Justice, the Supreme Court ruling favored the sugar barons of Hacienda Luisita and the landed aristocracy of Cojuangco-Aquino,” read the letter. “It is in the highest interest of the Filipino people and farm workers of Hacienda Luisita to end this long-running feudal reign and exploitation with the immediate, unconditional and free distribution of Hacienda Luisita to 10,000 farm worker beneficiaries...”

However, Marquez said the Luisita case has not yet been included in the SC’s agenda but will be tackled eventually because it is still a pending case.

“It should be included in the agenda of the court soon,” he said.

Marquez said the case would undergo due process like any ordinary case.

“Of course, it (case) will not receive any special treatment; it will proceed like any other case proceeds,” he said.

The farmers said the Luisita Estate Management has been disposing hectares of lands to commercial banks and foreign commercial enterprises despite the TRO issued by the SC.

Aquino owns one percent of shares in Hacienda Luisita.

Farmers in Hacienda Luisita fear they would no longer get justice once Aquino becomes president.

Lito Bais, acting president of the United Luisita Workers Union, alleged that the Luisita Estate Management has been harassing leaders and members of the Hacienda Luisita unions.

“Those who have less in life should have more in law,” he said. “Justice delayed is justice denied.”

Joined by Anakpawis party-list group and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), members of the Hacienda Luisita unions have protested the move of the Cojuangco-Aquino family to put up fences around 170 hectares of the estate.

The Luisita Estate Management has been transferring hectares of lands to commercial banks and foreign commercial enterprises despite the TRO issued by the SC, the union members alleged.

Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano said Hacienda Luisita’s distribution to farmer-beneficiaries would remain “an impossible dream” under the Aquino administration.

“Another Aquino administration will provide the Cojuangcos all the political ammunition to deny farmers of their rights to the land,” he said.

Arthur Cadungon, Bayan-NCR spokesman, said Aquino should make himself accountable for the mass killing of farmers in Hacienda Luisita in November 2004.

“Like what he wants to do with the culprits of the Maguindanao massacre, we want to see how decisive Noynoy will end impunity in the country and how he will serve justice to victims of the brutal mass murder of farm workers of Hacienda Luisita,” he said.