Mapalacsiao

Mapalacsiao (pop. 10,000), is one of 10 villages in the hacienda located just a kilometer away from the massacre site. It has also become a battle ground for the parties in conflict.

The village hall is now named after Ricardo Ramos, village chairman and president of the Central Azucarera de Tarlac Labor Union, the sugar mill workers’ union. Ramos, the 13th Luisita martyr, was gunned down in the village allegedly by soldiers on Oct. 25, 2005.

Aside from being a key strike leader, Ramos opposed the deployment of soldiers in the village and led residents in forming human barricades to protest the construction of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway Project (SCTEP) that cuts across the village and the entire hacienda.

At the façade of the village hall behind the makeshift altar where the commemorative mass was held hangs a tarpaulin mural depicting the struggle of the workers and their triumph in finally being able to till the land for their own use.

Stalks of newly-harvested rice, vegetables and sugar cane were on display to show that their lives now, after implementing “people’s land reform,” are better than when they were ill-paid wage earners.

The workers said that since the strike, more than 1,000 hectares were gradually turned into farms planted with food crops by the workers and their families.

The Cojuangco family can only watch as farm workers and their families started cultivating idle land during the height of the strike. With the SDP revoked and the issue of land distribution once again in the courts, the farm workers continued to expand cultivation.

Search for justice

“We will not rest until justice for the victims is achieved,’ said Romeo Ramos, brother of the slain labor leader. He said not one of the suspects has been arrested and blames the Cojuangco family and the government for master-minding the killings and coddling the suspects.

Roman Catholic Bishop Florentino Cinense said in his homily during the ecumenical mass that the search for truth and justice must continue although “the methods on how these can be achieved may sometimes be different.”

“The real meaning of paying tribute to the memory of our martyrs is for us to persevere and continue with the struggle for land, jobs and justice,” Rene Galang, president of the United Luisita Workers’ Union (ULWU), said in a statement.

Galang led the 5,000-strong plantation workers’ union but he had to leave the hacienda and seek sanctuary elsewhere when the strike ended because of serious threats on his life.

Uneasy peace

With the high stakes at hand, both parties are still locked in a virtual life and death struggle. The tension between civilians and the military lingers and occasionally disturbs the uneasy peace in the hacienda.

In fact, days before November 16, the residents reported that military check points were placed on roads leading to the sugar mill. Workers who went around the villages to invite people to join the commemoration also reported that they were harassed by the military.

The caravan of some 15 vehicles of the contingent from Metro Manila and the Central Luzon provinces was confronted by police in San Fernando, Pampanga.

Three of the vehicles in the caravan suffered flat tires due to metal spikes strewn by military agents along the road, according to Joseph Canlas, chair of the Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon (AMGL or Alliance of Peasants in Central Luzon).

“The workers were left with no choice but to continue fighting. The repression they experience everyday proves that the government and the Cojuangco family want to perpetuate land monopoly,” Canlas said.
Gitnang Luzon News Service/Posted by (Bulatlat.com)

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