EDITORIAL - Now make it work

The decision, according to the Supreme Court spokesman, is “final and executory,” and the SC will no longer entertain appeals. Hacienda Luisita, the largest sugar estate in the country, finally looks headed for parceling out to its workers. Land distribution was among the conditions set in the loan secured in 1957 by Jose Cojuangco Sr. from the Government Service Insurance System, guaranteed by the Central Bank, to acquire Luisita and the Central Azucarera de Tarlac from the Spanish Tabacalera.

Cojuangco and his family’s Tarlac Development Corp. held on to the estate, prompting the Marcos regime to go to court to compel land distribution in Luisita, but the effort was overtaken by the 1986 people power revolt. Cojuangco’s daughter Corazon signed into law a measure, shepherded through Congress by landowners including her brother Jose, that gave owners of agricultural estates the option to distribute corporate stocks rather than land to tenants.

With the SC ruling, the stock option has been scrapped. Hacienda Luisita Inc., where President Aquino says he holds a negligible share, also lost its bid to peg the value of the land for distribution at about P5 billion. The SC ruled that the compensation for HLI should be based on the much lower valuation in 1989.

While this battle rages, the government should move to ensure that agrarian reform will work for the 6,296 beneficiaries in the 4,915.75-hectare estate. The agrarian reform program is supposed to be a centerpiece of poverty alleviation in a country that is still largely agricultural. When it fails to live up to its promise, it is because the beneficiaries lack the necessary support services, from irrigation to fertilizers to roads and post-harvest facilities. The government knows what farmers need; it must see to it that agrarian reform will work in Hacienda Luisita.