Luisita land distribution to push through - DAR

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Agrarian Reform on Tuesday maintained that the scheduled distribution of land to farmworker-beneficiaries in Hacienda Luisita will push through despite the deadlock on the special audit in the sugar estate.

The DAR also described as “baseless and unfounded” the allegations that it has asked the Supreme Court to include two new parties in the “special audit” of Hacienda Luisita Inc. and the Centenary Holdings Inc.

DAR Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Anthony Parungao said  the process of land distribution in Hacienda Luisita, a property owned by the family of President Benigno Aquino III, is distinct and separate from the special purpose audit of pertinent financial records of HLI and CHI.

“There is no truth to allegations by a farmers’ group in Hacienda Luisita that the impasse on the special purpose audit is delaying the land distribution schedule in the sugar estate,” Parungao said.

Alyansa ng Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita said the DAR’s urgent motion filed with the High Court last month was intended to delay the scheduled land distribution in Hacienda Luisita in the middle of the year.

Parungao said DAR, through the Office of the Solicitor General, filed last May 27 the urgent motion to clarify various issues arising from the special purpose audit ordered by the latter of the pertinent financial records of HLI and CHI.

The DAR’s move was prompted by the recent impasse in the process to select a reputable accounting firm to conduct the said special audit, and the disagreement among the parties in the Hacienda Luisita case on which firm should be selected, after a vote last May 17 was conducted on a motion to disqualify two of the three interested accounting firms. 

DAR officials maintained that the special audit on HLI and CHI, with respect to the gross proceeds arising from the conversion of two lots with an area of 500 hectares and the expropriation of a portion for SCTEX, cannot proceed unless all the parties involved in the case have agreed on the accounting firm that will undertake this task.

Last year, the SC ordered DAR "to engage the services of a reputable accounting firm approved by the parties to audit the books of HLI and Centennary Holdings Inc. to determine if the P1.33-million proceeds of the sale of the three aforementioned lots were actually used or spent for legitimate corporate expenses.

"Any unspent or unused balance and any disallowed expenditures, as determined by the audit, shall be distributed to the 6,296 original FWBs (farmworker-beneficiaries)."

Based on the High Court’s ruling, Parungao said DAR’s role in the auditing is limited to facilitating the process that will lead to the engagement of the services of an accounting firm acceptable to and approved by all the parties involved in the Hacienda Luisita case.

The parties concerned, he  said, include Hacienda Luisita Inc. and the various farmers’ organizations representing the farmworkers of the country’s biggest sugar estate.

“Nowhere in our pleading before the Supreme Court can you find DAR’s request to include new parties in the special audit. Such accusation from AMBALA is baseless and unfounded,” Parungao said. - Dennis Carcamo