Luisita workers receive P10-M production share

TARLAC CITY — Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI), the corporate sugar farm here co-owned by the Cojuangco family, the Tarlac Development Corp. (TDC) and over 7,000 farmworker-beneficiaries, observed its 12th year of operations under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) yesterday by giving out the cash equivalent of the workers’ three percent production share of HLI’s gross revenues for the cropyear 2000-2001.

HLI president Don Pedro Cojuangco turned over to the farmworkers, through the United Luisita Workers’ Union, a total of P10,086,111.62, representing their share of the company’s gross sales from last year’s production.

In addition to their regular salaries and wages, HLI gives its farmworkers every cropyear the cash equivalent of three percent share of its gross production, regardless of the corporation’s net operating results.

The production share is among the workers’ benefits under the stock distribution option (SDO) provided in the memorandum of agreement entered into by and between HLI, TDC and the farmer-beneficiaries, which has been implemented in the sugar estate since 1989, in compliance with CARL provisions.

Based on its annual reports to the Department of Agrarian Reform since the implementation of the SDO, HLI has given its farmworkers a total of P112.6 million representing their production share, on top of their salaries, wages and medical and other fringe benefits which have reached some P2 billion as of last year.

HLI has also so far extended financial assistance and interest-free loans to its workers totaling some P200 million.

HLI also awarded for free, residential homelots of not less than 240 square meters each to the latest batch of family-beneficiaries. These are in addition to those already awarded, totaling 3,310 homelots.