This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 34, October 2-8, 2005
Hacienda
Luisita workers:
Although long overdue, a
recommendation by a government legal team to revoke the Stock Distribution
Option (SDO) scheme is a major step in upholding the legitimacy of the Hacienda
Luisita workers' struggle.
By
John Paul Andaquig and Sweet Mary Cawicaan
IBON Features / September 2005
Posted by
Bulatlat
IBON Features - Nearly a year since losing at
least seven of their co-workers to a violent dispersal by military and police
elements, the farm workers of Hacienda Luisita continue their struggle despite
harassment by military units and efforts by management to undermine the agrarian
issue.
At the very least, their petition for the
scrapping of the Stock Distribution Option (SDO) scheme is gaining ground. The
special legal team of the Department of Land Reform, tasked to review the
findings of Task Force Luisita, has confirmed that the management of Hacienda
Luisita Inc. (HLI) committed violations of the 1989 memorandum of agreement for
the implementation of the SDO scheme.
The agreement for the SDO was signed in 1989 and
supposedly went through a referendum among the 5,000 farmworkers of HLI. The
stock transfer scheme was the Cojuangcos' way of complying with the agrarian
reform program of then President Corazon Aquino, whose family is part-owner of
the 6,543-hectare agricultural estate.
Under the SDO agreement, the HLI farm workers
would own 33.3 percent of the total stocks of HLI, making them "co-owners" of
the corporation.
But the HLI farm workers have long asserted that
the SDO was nothing more than another exploitative scheme to facilitate the
non-provision of benefits and retrenchment of workers.
Their living conditions are enough proof for
their call to scrap the SDO scheme and nullify the 1989 agreement that
management insist was agreed upon by "94% of the farmers."
Not a political vendetta
In its terminal report, the DLR legal team
supported the findings of Task Force Luisita that living conditions of HLI
workers have further deteriorated under the SDO, and that provisions are grossly
advantageous to farmer-beneficiaries since the distribution of shares is
dependent on management's discretion.
The report also confirmed the allegations of
farmworkers that they were misled by HLI into believing they would receive
dividends from any income-generating activity of the corporation.
In an interview with IBON last year, HLI
farmworkers said the SDO was not really a stock distribution scheme but was
simply an "additional wage benefit" since the conditions for the distribution of
dividends to farmer-beneficiaries is dependent on the number of man-days, or the
days a farmer actually worked in the sugar milling company.
The problem with this, the farmworkers said, was
that the management unilaterally limited the number of man-days per worker since
1994 owing to supposed financial losses of the company following the decline of
world prices of sugar and sugarcane products. The number of man-days per year
was reduced to only 423,000 man-days to be divided among the more than 5,000
workers of HLI, or roughly 80 man-days per worker. In other words, even if a
farmer wanted to work at least five days a week, he can only work and earn once
in a week. In this set-up, his stocks and dividends are almost nil.
The farmworkers also said they couldn't possibly
be "stockholders" under the SDO since the management has retrenched many of
their ranks. Since 2000, the HLI has begun to implement voluntary early
retirement for its supervisors and farmworkers. About 1,009 farmworkers have
been retrenched under the SDO, including the 327 ULWU officers and members that
were sacked last October 2004.
The HLI management on the other hand said in a
news report that they had distributed 118 million shares of stocks to the
farmworkers, even ahead of a 2019 deadline as stipulated in the agreement. The
management also said the SDO has benefited workers, including the provision of
homelots.
But these shares and the homelots, farmworkers
insisted, were dependent on the workers' status. Once retrenched, a farmworker
loses his stocks and dividends and the supposed benefits from the SDO.
Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman
said the terminal report was "very objective" and is set to announce his final
decision this week, whether he will submit the report to the Presidential
Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) headed by President Arroyo.
In the end, the fate of the 5,000 Hacienda
Luisita farmworkers and their families may have to be decided by President
Arroyo herself.
The DLR recommendation has raised rumors of
political vendetta being waged by the Arroyo government as payback to former
President Aquino's support of moves to oust the incumbent administration.
But the militant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng
Pilipinas (KMP), which has been assisting the HLI farmworkers in their struggle,
said that the decision should not be reduced to mere political issue since the
farmers have fought long and hard to make their conditions heard by authorities.
The HLI management is expected to contest the
decision up to the courts, while the ULWU has yet to issue an official statement
regarding their actions following the favorable decision.
There is still blood in your
sugar
Nevertheless, a possible revocation of the SDO
scheme will be a big step in the struggle of HLI workers for genuine land reform
and decent living conditions, especially at a time when harassments continue and
management seems bent on expanding industrial estates within Hacienda Luisita.
Since the bloody dispersal of Nov. 16 last year,
farmworkers and their families have been under intense militarization. Farmers
said that the Hacienda Luisita now looks more like a military camp than a sugar
plantation.
"Para
na ngang garison ng militar ang asyenda, kulang na nga lang patirahin na namin
ang mga sundalo dito" (The hacienda
looks more like a military garrison, it's as if the soldiers already live here),
describes a 42-year old farm worker who asked that his full name be withheld for
security reasons.
The farm worker lives in Brgy. Balete, one of
ten barangays within the Luisita estate, that have been under military
surveillance by troops from the Philippine Army, Philippine National Police and
even the Marines.
"Maging sa Brgy.
Asturias, pinakamaliit nang barangay, may
mahigit 80 sundalo na nagmamatyag"
(Even in Bgy. Asturias, the smallest barangay, there are more than 80 soldiers
on guard), said 48 year-old Angelito Bais, an ULWU member and barangay official.
He said many of his co-residents have been branded by the military as members of
the New People's Army (NPA).
Even Bais is now on the military list of alleged NPA rebels, since he aired his
sentiments against the management during an Aug. 25 dialogue between residents
and officials of the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA), the main
proponent agency of the Subic-Clark Tarlac Expressway Project.
Farmers said that the transportation project is
one of the factors why militarization has increased especially in towns where
the expressway project would pass through.
In Brgy. Balete, for instance, violence almost
ensued last Aug. 18 when residents prevented an excavation team accompanied by
military elements from bulldozing a part of their barangay.
Last Sept. 19, ULWU President Rene Galang said
that soldiers of the Northern Luzon Command tried to disperse picketing workers
in Brgy. Mapalacsiao. Galang said the incident started after ULWU members
refused to accept payment for their lands to be converted for the expressway
project.
These are among several reported incidents of
harassment that has further created a climate of fear among residents and
farmworkers. A resident said about 45 Marines under the leadership of Brig. Gen.
Jovito Palparan are already within Hacienda Luisita. Palparan is the former unit
commander in the
Mindoro and Samar provinces and have been linked to several cases of human
rights violations.
Until today, justice has yet to be served to the
seven Hacienda Luisita workers who died last Nov. 16, as well as activists,
human rights workers, church people and local officials that were slain in
connection with the Hacienda Luisita case.
Communal farming
For the past several months, the striking
farmworkers have relied on outside support, particularly from Church groups,
NGOs and local and international human rights organizations, to maintain their
struggle amid worsening poverty on top of the harassment they have been facing.
"Napakahirap pa rin talaga ng buhay namin.
Marami sa amin ang wala pa ring trabaho. Nakakatuloy lang kami sa laban dahil sa
tulong ng maraming grupo na dumadalaw sa piketlayn namin" (We are still
facing a very difficult life. Many of us are still without work. We only get by
because of the support of many organizations that visit our picketline), said
Galang in an Aug. 19 interview during the People's Tribunal of the International
Solidarity Mission.
Galan’s sentiments are echoed by ULWU members.
Bais, for his part, has been working in the
Hacienda Luisita estate as a seasonal sugar worker for 25 years. But he was
among those retrenched last Aug. 2004, a few months before another batch of farm
workers were laid-off, including several ULWU officers.
Three of Bais's children already have families
of their own but have remained in the hacienda for lack of job opportunities
outside. Two of his children are working in the Luisita Industrial Park (LIP), a
120-hectare commercial district within HLI built in the early 1990s.
Bais's wife washes clothes for employees within
the LIP. But poverty continues to afflict Bais and his family.
To make ends meet, Bais along with his fellow
farmworkers have turned to communal farming. "Nag-organisa kami na magtanim
ng mga gulay sa mga bakanteng lote" (We plant vegetables in vacant lots)
said Bais. Through the help of organizations supporting their strike, Bais and
his co-workers were able to avail of vegetable seeds which they planted on small
lots. The produce is then shared among farmers of the community or among
picketing workers in other barangays.
Though their fate remains uncertain-- as the SDO
scheme will have to go through Malacañang-- the HLI farmworkers are determined
more than ever to intensify their struggle until their rights as tenant-farmers
are recognized and protected. IBON Features / Posted by Bulatlat © 2005 Bulatlat
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Will Justice Finally be Served?