ULWU and AMBALA issued their own position paper and conducted a counter-signature campaign to deny any knowledge of the proposal and disown its proponents.
In their position paper, ULWU and AMBALA said the two former supervisors and two former union officers were not authorized to negotiate with management nor offer a proposal and enter into an agreement.
“The scheme will be rejected by the farm workers because it is entirely against what they have sacrificed and laid their lives for,” Galang said in a separate statement sent to media dated October 5, 2007.
DAR not involved
In a letter to the farm workers dated September 17, 2007, DAR secretary Nasser Pangandaman said his department is not in any way involved in the supposed negotiations.
“Nais kong ipabatid sa kaalaman ng lahat na ang Department of Agrarian Reform ay hindi sangkot sa anumang usaping naghahangad ng pagkakasundo sa pagitan ng Cojuangco at mga manggagawang bukid,” (I would like everyone to know that DAR is not involved in any matter that is meant to reconcile the Cojuangco [family] and the farm workers), Pangandaman said in the letter that is also being circulated at the hacienda.
Pangandaman said that he is against the supposed proposal because of the following reasons:
· Only 2,000 hectares, at the most, will be distributed instead of 4,915.296 has. covered by CARP.
· The proposal violates the order of the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council to revoke the SDO and distribute the land in its entirety to the farm workers.
· The farm workers will receive a very small amount of money that can easily be dissipated.
· He will not allow any agreement that will put the farm workers in jeopardy.
In the October 5 dialogue, DAR assistant secretary for operations Domingo Andres and assistant regional director for operations (ARDO) Ronald Pangilinan also confirmed that DAR is not involved in the negotiations.
“Bale wala ito,” (This is not binding), Andres said as he held and waved a copy of the supposed agreement in front of some 15 AMBALA and ULWU officers who attended that dialog.
Bernie Cruz
Asked by the farm workers on the role of a certain DAR national official named Bernie Cruz whom the farm workers identified as being involved in the negotiations, Andres said that Cruz may be involved on a personal basis and not in his official capacity as a DAR official.
“Since Secretary Pangandaman has said that DAR has no knowledge [of the negotiation] and that municipal, provincial and regional agrarian reform officers are also not aware [of the negotiations], it is possible that Cruz is involved only on a personal basis, not official,” Andres said.
Andres praised and encouraged the ULWU and AMBALA officers for being vigilant in safeguarding their rights as land reform beneficiaries.
“Kung tulog tayo, matatalo tayo,” (If we are caught sleeping, we will lose), Andres said.
Almost 3,000 hectares
While the Cojuangco appears hell-bent on clinging on to the land they have controlled for the past 50 years, the farm workers continue to expand cultivation and make the idle land productive.
Boy Mendoza, union officer from barangay Cut-cut II, reported during the dialog that almost 3,000 has. in the 10 villages comprising the hacienda is now being planted to rice and vegetables.
He asked the DAR officials for support in their cultivation in terms of seedlings, farm equipment, fertilizer and pesticides.
Andres promised to tap resources from his department and other agencies like the Department of Agriculture to help the farm workers.
Joseph Canlas, chair of the Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon (AMGL or Central Luzon Peasant Alliance) who also attended the meeting and whose organization supports the farm workers said that the TRO did not deter the farm workers’ dream of tilling the land they may some day call their own. Gitnang Luzon News Service/Posted by Bulatlat
