MANILA — Ten years. No justice. To symbolize the outrage over the absence of justice for the victims of Hacienda Luisita massacre, farmworkers and human rights advocates tied bloodied yellow ribbons near the President’s ancestral home in Times st., Quezon City. Members of human rights alliance Karapatan and the Unyon ng mga Mangagawa sa Agrikultura…
Judge Scott Robinos of the Tarlac Municipal Trial Court Branch 1 referred the case filed by the Tarlac Development Corporation (Tadeco) against five farmers to the DAR, Oct. 1.
To date, no one has been punished for the gruesome killings.
The international group called for a joint inquiry by Senate and the House of Representatives on the reported abuses in Hacienda Luisita.
“Justice remains elusive but his death would not be for naught if we continue what my father fought for.”
The Cojuangco-Aquino-owned firm in Hacienda Luisita has been putting up concrete barriers around farm lots, assaulting and illegally arresting farmers. But 56 years after the Cojuangcos laid claim on the estate, the farmers are not about to give up the fight for their right to the land.
“The public must be made aware that the worst atrocities are being committed by no less than the Presidential family against hapless farmers despite – or as cruel retribution for – the Supreme Court ruling for total land distribution in Hacienda Luisita.” – Jobert Pahilga, counsel for the Luisita farmers and executive director of the Sentro para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo (Sentra)
“The Cojuangco-Aquinos are hell-bent on maintaining control of the Luisita estate and in implementing their grand master plan to convert the sugar plantation into a giant commercial hub, in contempt and complete reversal of the 2012 Supreme Court decision for total land distribution.”– Florida Sibayan, chair of the Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang-Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (Ambala)
“There should be no need to require farmworkers to apply for the purchase of lands that they already own. There is, therefore, no basis for the DAR’s imposition to farm worker beneficiaries to sign the Affidavit of Purchase and Farmers’ Undertaking.”
“To reopen the case is but to afford due process to the complainants.”
BACK STORY | The Hacienda Luisita massacre: How it happened
The DAR said that from 2011 to June 2014, Landbank disbursed P4.052 billion ($92.94 million) representing the cash portion of landowners compensation to more than 4,000 landowners whose lands were distributed to farmer-beneficiaries of the agrarian reform program. Of this amount, P471.50 million ($10.48 million) was paid to Hacienda Luisita. Incorporated (HLI).