Sweet but Partial Victory

“This victory will not have been possible without the sacrifice of the martyrs of Hacienda Luisita. However, justice for the people of the hacienda will only be complete if the perpetrators of the murders of the seven workers and four of their supporters will be brought to justice.”

By Abner Bolos
Bulatlat

For the plantation and sugar mill workers of Hacienda Luisita, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) decision to revoke the Stock Distribution Option (SDO) “is sweet victory.” They say they have been vindicated on their claim that the negative effects of the scheme on their work situation is the root of the strike and the infamous Hacienda Luisita massacre of November 2004.

Rene Galang, United Luisita Workers Union (ULWU) president, said “It validates what we have been saying all along: that aside from bringing unprecedented poverty and oppression on the hacienda people, the SDO enabled the Cojuangco-Aquino family to evade land distribution and profit immensely through unjust and illegal land use conversion.”

On the night of Sept. 30, hundreds of striking workers converged at the picket line in Gate 1 of the sugar mill in Tarlac City in jubilation and watched TV broadcasts where DAR Secretary Nasser Pangandaman announced his approval of the revocation and his recommendation that land distribution should immediately take place.

Rene Tua, adviser of the Central Azucarera de Tarlac Labor Union (CATLU), likened the DAR decision to clipping the wings of the Cojuangco-Aquino family who have lorded it over the hacienda for more than 50 years.

“Aside from being very happy with the decision, the people of hacienda can now stand proud that they have won a battle with the clan,” Tua told Bulatlat. “We await the day when we can stand face-to-face with the Cojuangcos and tell them in their face that we were right all along and they will stand trial for their crimes. “Para silang agilang naputulan ng bagwis” (They are like an eagle whose wings was clipped), he said.

With the decision, the unions are more confident that the 10-month old strike, the most bloody and controversial in the country's history, will be resolved in their favor. Union leaders say they will conduct meetings in the 10 villages that comprise the hacienda to explain the DAR decision and its implications in the labor dispute.

But union leaders are also cautious. They say that the decision is only a partial victory and land distribution is still far down the road.

“We expect the clan to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. What must be done now is for the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council to finally revoke the SDO and issue a decision that land distribution is to be implemented,” Galang said.

Galang said that they expect the Cojuangco-Aquino family to once again argue that the issue is already a corporate matter and has ceased to be an agrarian problem.

“The piles of documents [the clan] possess cannot, by any stretch of imagination prove that Hacienda Luisita has ceased to be an agrarian issue. The documents only show to what extent they will go to steal the land from its rightful owners and amass wealth from its unjust use,” Galang said.

The unions demand that with the decision, the clan must desist from engaging in any transaction involving the land such as converting, mortgaging or selling the land. Moreover, the unions demand that the land area coverage be reverted back to the original 6,543 has.   

The unions assert that the clan must be held accountable and be compelled to compensate or give back to the farm workers all illegally obtained money from the conversion and sale of the land.

Records obtained by the unions reveal that a big chunk of the hacienda has been mortgaged by members of the Cojuangco-Aquino family to the Prudential Bank and other banks for about P550 million since 1991 without the knowledge of the farm workers. The corporation has also been paid some P1.2 billion from the sale of a 500-ha. land which was converted to non-agricultural use in 1996.

The corporation has also been paid P90 million in right-of-way payments by the Base Conversion Development Authority for the use of some 66 hectares inside the hacienda for the construction of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway Project. The striking workers have blocked the construction of the expressway inside the hacienda and have demanded that it be held in abeyance until the strike and land-related issues have been resolved.

Finally, the union leaders say they will continue to seek justice for 11 people who were killed for supporting the strike.

“This victory will not have been possible without the sacrifice of the martyrs of Hacienda Luisita. Justice for the people of the hacienda will only be complete if the perpetrators of the murders of the seven workers and four of their supporters will be brought to justice,” Galang said. Bulatlat  

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