Militant lawmakers welcome Supreme Court decision on Luisita

MANILA, Philippines - Anakpawis party-list Rep. Rafael Mariano lauded yesterday the decision of the Supreme Court on the Hacienda Luisita labor dispute, saying the ruling was “a positive step for justice to farm workers.”

He said he hopes the court would “put the final nail in the coffin” of the stock distribution option scheme implemented in over 6,000 hectares of sugar estate owned by the family of President Aquino.

Mariano issued the statement after the court’s second division, in a unanimous July 26 decision, ordered Central Azucarera de Tarlac (CAT), which operates the sugar mill and refinery in Hacienda Luisita, to honor its long-established formula in computing the bonus for workers.

The SC noted the benefit enjoyed for 30 years by workers was only reduced after the bloody strike in 2004.

The court declared “this act of petitioner in changing the formula at this time cannot be sanctioned as it indicates a badge of bad faith.”

The decades-old agrarian dispute in Hacienda Luisita is now in the hands of the high court that has set oral arguments on Aug. 18.

“The Luisita management’s vengeful and willful changing of the formula of the workers’ bonuses after the violent dispersal of the workers and peasant strike clearly demonstrates the anti-worker character of the Cojuangco-Aquinos,” Mariano said.

“This victory by the Central Azucarera de Tarlac Labor Union is a result of the militant and organized actions by farmers and workers of Hacienda Luisita,” he said.

He added that lifting the temporary restraining order on the distribution of Hacienda Luisita is long overdue.

Mariano, who also chairs the peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, called on the justices to focus on the “evils and injustices of the stock distribution option scheme under what he described as the bogus Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, rather than submit to the legal maneuvers of the Cojuangco-Aquinos to strengthen their legally and morally questionable ownership of the lands.”

“The justices cannot play deaf and blind. Even on the surface, they can easily see the contrast between a supposed farmer-stockholder and a so-called minority shareholder,” he said.

“While the farmer-stockholder and his family (survive) on a P9.50 salary, the so-called minority shareholder eventually became President of the country,” he said.

Mariano pointed out “the strongest argument of farmers against the stock distribution option is that it was used by the Cojuangco-Aquinos to evade land distribution.”