Speedy probe of Luisita unionist’s ambush urged

Agrarian Reform Secretary Horacio Morales Jr. expressed grave concern yesterday over the near-fatal ambush last Wednesday of the president of the workers’ union of the Cojuangcos’ Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac and a Concepcion town policeman.

In a statement, Morales called on police authorities to speed up the investigation into the shooting incident and provide security to other officers and members of the United Luisita Workers Union (ULWU).

The attack on union leader Francisco Sigua, 48, and SPO3 Ramon Molina occurred hours after he led about 200 rallyists calling for the scrapping of the stock distribution option (SDO) entered into by Hacienda Luisita with its farmers.

Morales, however, appealed for calm among the sugar workers pending the results of the investigation. He promised to meet with their leaders next week.

The SDO scheme enabled Hacienda Luisita to be exempt from the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), passed during the term of former President Corazon Aquino. Hacienda Luisita is owned by Aquino’s family.

Last week, Morales junked all SDO petitions from other plantation owners, and ordered the review of current stock distribution schemes after receiving numerous complaints from farmers since last year.

The farmers said they have not been getting the benefits promised them supposedly as stockholders of the plantations.

Meanwhile, former Tarlac Rep. Jose "Peping" Cojuangco, accompanied by Tarlac Vice Gov. Herminio Aquino, paid Sigua a visit at the Ramos General Hospital in Tarlac City.

Sigua is nursing gunshot wounds in his right hand. Molina was shot in the back.

Blank wall

Cojuangco also urged the police to immediately solve the case, expressing fears that any delay in the probe might trigger further violence.

Probers though still face a blank wall. Sigua, according to Superintendent Maximo Calimlim, Tarlac police director, admitted having received death threats purportedly from the New People’s Army.

Sigua, according to sources in the underground movement, is believed to be a former member of the vigilante groups "Monkies" and "Beatles," which existed in Tarlac during the martial law regime. The NPA said these groups were private armies of Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco.

About a couple of weeks ago, NPA chief Rogelio Rosal alias Ka Roger disclosed in a statement that the rebels will form special commando units to go after Danding’s alleged private armies in Tarlac and Negros Occidental.

But an NPA source said Rosal’s directive will have to conform to "existing objective conditions in a particular revolutionary area."

The source added that it would be unwise for the NPA to harm Sigua because he heads the second largest labor union in Hacienda Luisita.

The source believes that Sigua could be a "sacrificial lamb" in fomenting "untimely unrest" in the sugar estate, as the mainstream Left has maintained an "informal alliance" with groups seeking the resignation of President Estrada.— Benjie Villa