DAR team to study consequences of Hacienda Luisita resolution

Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman has activated the legal team that investigated the Hacienda Luisita case to study the consequences of Resolution 2005-32-01 of the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) recalling the stock distribution option (SDO) scheme of the Tarlac sugar estate.

Pangandaman said there are many issues to be resolved in the Hacienda Luisita case, including the sale of a portion of the sugar estate for the construction of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway.

He, however, promised to fight it out with Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) and stand firm on the PARC resolution.

Pangandaman said the legal team will study, among other things, the possible recall of the conversion permit earlier granted to a 500-hectare portion of Hacienda Luisita.

He rejected the HLI’s claim that the farm workers have to return the benefits they have received over the years should the landholding be distributed to the farmer-beneficiaries.

"The DAR legal team will study the consequences of the PARC resolution so we can properly address the issues and facilitate smoothly the distribution of the land to the farmer-beneficiaries," he said.

DAR Undersecretary for Field Operations Narciso Nieto is expected to issue the notice of coverage on the sprawling sugar plantation and sugar mill this week.

Last Friday, Nieto received a memorandum from Pangandaman directing him to immediately issue a notice of coverage to the HLI management.

The notice of coverage is deemed as the "appropriate action to acquire and distribute the entire Hacienda Luisita agricultural landholding" under the compulsory acquisition scheme of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

The recall of the SDO and compulsory acquisition of the nearly 5,000-hectare sugar estate were stipulated in PARC Resolution 2005-32-01.

Pangandaman said his department and the Land Bank of the Philippines will soon conduct an ocular inspection of Hacienda Luisita to determine the actual value of the landholding.

The DAR will also identify the retention limits prescribed under Republic Act 6657, which created CARP, in the sugar estate. Under the law, a landowner can be given a maximum "retention area" of five hectares. The qualified farmer-beneficiaries will be identified thereafter.

Meanwhile, organized and individual farmers in the Cojuangco-owned estate appealed to DAR to carefully examine the list of farmer-beneficiaries.