Farmers 'take over' Luisita

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, Philippines – Hacienda Luisita farmers yesterday marked Bonifacio Day by officially declaring their “takeover” of the hacienda and ordering the Cojuangco-Aquino family to “vacate” the estate.

In a statement jointly issued by their unions, the farmers also demanded the family to pay P1.33 billion earned from the sale of some 200 hectares of hacienda lands in 1996 and the sale of another 80 hectares for the Subic-Clark-Tarlac expressway (SCTEX) project, as well as income from the Luisita Industrial Park in Tarlac City.

Describing themselves as the “real owners” of the hacienda, the farmers also told the military within the estate to leave Luisita.

The Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA), the mother federation of Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (Ambala) and United Luisita Workers Union (ULWU), made the demands in a statement issued on behalf of “the original 6,296 farm worker-beneficiaries” of land reform in the property that the Supreme Court recently ordered distributed to them.

“The farmers are taking over the sprawling 6,453 hectares from the family of President Benigno Simeon Aquino III,” said UMA secretary-general Rodel Mesa.

Mesa said the P1.33-billion share of the farmers from hacienda lands sold by the Cojuangco-Aquino family, as well as income from the Luisita Industrial Park, would be used as “productive capital and to procure farm equipment and other support infrastructures so the farm workers can improve agricultural production inside Luisita.”

“The distribution of Hacienda Luisita to farm worker-beneficiaries should be under the mode of free land distribution and no just compensation should be given to the family of President Aquino to complete the delivery of long-deserved social justice to sugar workers inside the hacienda,” Mesa said.

The statement also junked proposals to compensate the Cojuangco-Aquino family. “There is no such thing as just compensation for a long-running crime of social injustice, feudal exploitation, land reform denials and massacre of peasant lives,” the statement said.

Mesa said compensation was “ridiculous” amid the so-called Hacienda Luisita massacre on Nov. 16, 2004 and the “illegal and immoral acquisition” of the estate by the Cojuangco-Aquino family in 1957.

The Cojuangcos obtained a loan from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) to acquire the property in 1957, but under the condition that the lands would be distributed to the farmers 10 years later, or in 1967.

The statement also said that some P2 billion in debt of the Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) to San Miguel Corp. should not be passed on to the farmers.

“The farm workers have nothing to do with the P2-billion debt incurred by the controlling Cojuangco-Aquino camp in 2004,” said the UMA statement.

“The 67 percent controlling interest of the family of President Aquino in HLI gained P2.7 billion from the sale of 200 hectares of land in 1995, the sale of Luisita Industrial Park and from the sale of 80 hectares for the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX),” the statement said.

UMA noted “the entire proceeds from the sale could reach as much as P4.030 billion, with P2.67 billion going to the pockets of the Cojuangcos.”

UMA asserted the HLI management “is now using the P2-billion debt to San Miguel as convenient excuse to pave the way for Danding and SMC’s takeover of Hacienda Luisita.”