A land use plan which contains the comprehensive land conversion of the entire Hacienda Luisita into a commercial and industrial complex will likely force more than 5,000 plantation workers out of their jobs. The LUP includes President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTE).
BY DABET CASTAÑEDA
Bulatlat.com
A land use plan (LUP) which contains the comprehensive land conversion of the entire Hacienda Luisita into a commercial and industrial complex will likely force more than 5,000 plantation workers out of their jobs. Designed by the SWA Group for the Luisita Realty Corporation (LRC) in 1998, the LUP includes President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTE).
The LUP is touted by its owners as the next important commercial and industrial hub in Central Luzon.
But the plan itself could hit some snags.
Officials of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) national office in Quezon City, however, said that except for the 500 hectares that were allowed to be converted into industrial and residential park in 1995, no other application for land conversion plan or the SCTE itself has been received by their office.
Interviewed by Bulatlat Feb. 3, Marichu Mariano, legal officer of DAR’s Center for Land Use Policy Planning and Implementation (CLUPPI), said the SCTE plan cannot be implemented unless the landowners (the Cojuangco-Aquino family) apply for its conversion.
The DAR official also said Hacienda Luisita’s farm workers should be consulted whether they agree to the new conversion. If the farmer beneficiaries say no, they could file a protest at the DAR office.
Mariano warned however that any protest could only delay the project but could not stop the conversion. At most, she said, the farmer beneficiaries who stand to lose their jobs could only expect a “just compensation.”
Family plan
The Hacienda Luisita land use plan, a copy of which was obtained by Bulatlat, shows that the family of former President Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino plan to convert all its agricultural lands in Tarlac into commercial, industrial, residential and recreational parks.
Located 120 kms north of Manila, the 6,443-ha sugarcane plantation, mill and refinery lies in the tri-boundary of the municipalities of Tarlac province – Tarlac City, Concepcion and La Paz.
Approved for re-classification by the Office of the Sangguniang Bayan on Sept. 1, 1995 through Resolution No. 280, Hacienda Luisita has been included in the zoning map of the municipality of Tarlac.
On the other hand, the LUP submitted by its developer, LRC – a subsidiary of the Jose Cojuangco and Sons, Inc. or JCSI – covers 3,290 hectares of the 4,915-hectare sugarcane plantation. The plantation is also owned and operated by another JCSI subsidiary, the Hacienda Luisita, Inc. (HLI).
The SCTE, on the other hand, is part of President Macapagal-Arroyo’s pet project, the Global Gateway – an inter-modal transportation park using the Subic Container Port Terminal and the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport.
10-point agenda
The Global Gateway project is under the Subic and Clark Economic Zones which the president included in the 10-point agenda she aims to achieve in her new six-year term.
In a recent speech, the President admitted that she has spearheaded this project since she was secretary of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) several years ago.
The P18.7-billion SCTE will stretch 90 kms from Concepcion and will exit northward between La Paz and Tarlac City. The 60-meter-wide expressway will pass through sugarcanes in the middle of the hacienda slicing through six of the hacienda’s 11 barangays (villages) – Balete, Central, Cut-Cut II, Lourdes (Texas), Mapalacsiao and Bantog.
The ambitious project will rip up around 66 hectares of sugarcane and is being implemented by the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) through a loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). BCDA pronouncements say it is expected to operate this year barring any problems from acquiring the right of way.
Link up
The President’s SCTE is planned to provide the shortest, direct and efficient artery linking up economic areas in Central Luzon, particularly the Subic Bay Special Economic Zone and Freeport Zone in Zambales, the Clark Special Economic Zone in Pampanga and the Luisita Industrial Park in Tarlac, the BCDA further said.
The proposed road alignment will cut across rivers and lahar watersheds, and will include the construction of 35 bridges and minor drainage structures.
Meanwhile, a Tarlac city councilor, Abel Ladera, said the construction of the expressway in the heart of the sugar plantation only confirms what many farm workers fear: that Hacienda Luisita is being designed to be part of President Macapagal-Arroyo’s commercial and industrial program.
“Sinasabay ng mga Cojuangco ang lupain ng asyenda sa comprehensive plan ng bansa,” said Ladera, who chairs the city council’s committee on labor and employment.
