Farmers’ group hits gov’t plan to raffle off Luisita lands

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, Philippines – Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said the government’s plan to distribute Hacienda Luisita farmlands through raffle draw is “foolish” and “an insult” to the struggles of farmworkers.

“The method planned by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) is very unscientific, foolish and idiotic,” KMP secretary-general Antonio Flores said yesterday.

“It is an insult to the life and death struggle of Hacienda Luisita farmworkers for genuine land reform. It also proves that the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) is a sham,” he added.

The comment came after Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes announced that a tambiolo or lottery drum would be used in raffling off Luisita farmlands which had been owned by the Cojuangco clan, the family of President Aquino, until the Supreme Court (SC) ordered with finality the distribution of the vast estate to Luisita farmworkers.

He said it would be a “crucial step” in generating the Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) that would be given to qualified farmworkers in Hacienda Luisita, possibly between August and September.

But Flores said the identification of size and location of lands to be distributed should be closely coordinated with farmworkers for smooth, orderly and proper distribution.

“The tambiolo land reform shows that the Aquino government is not serious in distributing Hacienda Luisita lands to farmworkers... It must be opposed and defied because it serves the Cojuangco-Aquino’s interest to divide the ranks of the farmworkers,” Flores noted.

“The DAR and the Cojuangco-Aquinos never run out of political maneuvers to deceive the farmworkers and evade land distribution. This latest maneuver is the most stupid way we have seen so far in the DAR’s sabotage operations in the supposed distribution of Hacienda Luisita,” he added.

The KMP also reiterated calls for “zero compensation of the Cojuangco family.” They argued that the Luisita farmworkers have long paid for the lands and the Cojuangcos have “enriched themselves for almost six decades of illegal control and monopoly of the hacienda.”

In 1957, the Cojuangco family bought the hacienda from loans from the Government Service Insurance System but it imposed the condition that the lands be distributed to the farmworkers after 10 years or in 1967.

An official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) also expressed doubt that the DAR would be able to fulfill its promise to distribute the Luisita lands by September.

Fr. Edu Gariguez, executive secretary of the CBCP-National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace, said that as much as he wants to be optimistic about the DAR, its past performance prevents him from hoping that it would complete the land distribution by September.

He noted that the distribution process alone would take two months.

He also disclosed that up to last Monday, the CBCP has received complaints from the beneficiaries.

“With the track record of the DAR, wherein it has been very inefficient in the implementation (of the CARP), I do hope it will be implemented but I do not think that this will happen,” Gariguez said.

The SC upheld with finality the decision to distribute Hacienda Luisita to farmers on April 22, 2012.

It was reported that a private firm hired by DAR completed the consolidation and subdivision survey on a total of 5,149 hectares in the hacienda. Of the area surveyed, 500 hectares of the converted area and 80.51 hectares were not subject to distribution based on the high court’s decision. – With Evelyn Macairan