Peasants Worry Mediation Panel May Prolong Luisita SDO Case

One of the justices had compared the higher number of beneficiaries in the compromise agreement with the 1,000 farmworkers who opposed the SDO compromise agreement.

In Tuesday’s hearing, Pahilga told the Supreme Court he has more than 1,000 signatures of farm workers who are opposed to the SDO compromise agreement. But he was asked by Justice Roberto A. Abad to produce more signatures of farm worker beneficiaries of HLI as the 1,000 plus signatures he holds only comprise 10 percent of the farm workers.

PARC Haunted By “Mistakes and Omissions” Under Aquino Government

Associate Justice Arturo D. Brion pointed to the “omissions and violations that the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) has committed” in coming up with the SDO in Hacienda Luisita in 1989. The qualification of farm worker beneficiaries was not indicated in the SDO which was approved by the PARC, said Brion. He said the PARC also committed violations in some terms and conditions under SDO.

Brion questioned Solicitor General Jose Anselmo Cadiz, whose office represented the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) in the hearing, about how PARC originally came out with the SDO in Luisita.

Although Brion later clarified that he did “not mean to cast any aspersions on the integrity of the President,” he had questioned Cadiz, an appointee of President Benigno Aquino III, on whether former President Corazon Aquino took part in PARC’s deliberations in 1989 in approving the SDO agreement in Hacienda Luisita.

Brion said at the time the SDO was first crafted and approved by PARC, Cory Aquino, as president, was the chair of PARC, the vice-chair was the DAR secretary and the members are others from her Cabinet. “But the cabinet members are the alter ego of the president, right?” asked Brion.

Justice Velasco had previously reiterated that “the land should be distributed within the time frame provided by the law, and there comes the violation of the principles of CARL,” when the SDO in Luisita was crafted to be completed only after 30 years. Jusctice Perez also reiterated that HLI did not comply with the provisions of the Administrative Order 10 series of 1998.

Now Solicitor General Cadiz is arguing for the revocation of the SDO and that the Philippine Republic is for “land distribution.” He enumerated the legal bases for the revocation of the SDO, such as the 10 percent of dividends that were not distributed to farm workers. Cadiz also said Hacienda Luisita Inc. has no reasonsto “tie down the farmworkers to this uneven relationship” even if the corporation claims it has been “losing money”.

He also said the three percent of gross income of production has not been fully distributed to farm-workers. There has never been a claim and no record would prove that the three percent of gross income has been distributed. The title to own the land was also not given. It is also stated in the Administrative Order 10 series of 1998 that the economic status of the farm-workers must improve and yet “20 years hence, the farm-workers are still poor,” Cadiz said.

Furthermore, Cadiz said that as a result of the land use conversions at the hacienda, the land has been fragmented. “And the biggest violation, said Cadiz, is the man-day’s formula, which by requiring the farm-worker beneficiaries to earn their shares on this basis gave them with mere employee benefits instead of the equivalent of the land that they otherwise would have owned under compulsory acquisition. In other words the SDO contemplates that a farmer will be a beneficiary, the farmer will be an employee and a farmer will be share holder, but in this instance, since no land has been given, they are merely employees,” said Cadiz.

Towards the end of the six-hour hearing, the high court created a committee for mediation and asked all parties to submit their memoranda within 30 days beginning August 24.

Amid all these questions on PARC’s authority to decide on the land reform issue at Hacienda Luisita, the current PARC chair and scion, too, of the majority shareholders of Luisita, President Benigno Cojuangco Aquino announced that he would still keep his “hands off” the land issue. (Bulatlat.com)