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Each paper that was raffled not only contained the name of the farmworker beneficiary but also the corresponding lot allocation that has already been pre-determined. Farmworker-beneficiaries were never asked to pick random lot allocations from the tambiolo.
“This is all part of the scheme of the Cojuangco-Aquino clan to silence us. Who else would have ordered the police to arrest us? Who else would have allowed the military to construct their outposts here?” -- Florida Sibayan, Ambala
“We were practically arrested by the Cojuangco-Aquino family to hide the anomalous and violent implementation of a flawed land distribution scheme.” – Ericsson Acosta, poet, ex-detainee, and part of the fact-finding team
Anakpawis Rep. Fernando Hicap, Sister Pat Fox of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines and former political prisoners Ericson Acosta and Kerima Tariman were among those arrested.
The Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Asyenda Luisita (Ambala) complained of the reduction of land being distributed, forcible signing of Application to Purchase and Farmers Undertaking, the unaffordable amortization, and the deployment of several Special Action Forces (SAF) and Special Weapons and Tactics units.
The organization of farm workers in Hacienda Luisita said the HLI management is engaged in a “grand collusion” with the DAR to derail if not sabotage the process to effectively stop the distribution of Luisita lands to farm worker beneficiaries by “orchestrating moves and actions detrimental to or grossly opposed to effective land distribution and justice driven land reform inside the Cojuangco-Aquino sugar estate.”
“Deed of title? The DAR did not even show us the land survey and now Aquino promised to give us land titles.” ¬ – Florida Sibayan, chairwoman of Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Asyenda Luisita (Ambala)
“I think it is horrible to see the priorities of this government, prioritizing the wealthy over the poor.”
Farmer-beneficiaries of Hacienda Luisita march from Tarlac to Manila to press for the immediate distribution of Hacienda Luisita land, as ordered by the Supreme Court. This video shows the hardships the farmworkers undergo to attain justice, despite the nearly insurmountable odds ranged against them by those who control the vast landholding—the family of President Benigno Aquino—who, according to the farmers, use legalities and the government's coercive forces to delay and eventually keep Hacienda Luisita under their control. But the farmworkers are not to be denied. Aside from pressing their right to land, they have already started tilling the land they say belongs to them by law and by moral right.
The Department of Agrarian Reform is seemingly caught between doing what the Supreme Court directed them to do and the dictates of the Cojuangco family.
The farm workers are complaining that a year since the Supreme Court decision became final and executory, they are nowhere near owning the land that is rightfully theirs while the Cojuangco-Aquino clan has already been given an advance payment and the decisions of the Department of Agrarian Reform would result in President Aquino’s family retaining control over the land.
"We cannot rely on DAR to implement genuine land reform. We cannot rely on Noynoy Aquino. We must continue implementing our own version of agrarian reform." – United Luisita Workers Union
By RONALYN V. OLEA
“The promissory note will make it easier for DAR and the Cojuangco-Aquinos to evict the farm worker-beneficiaries from their land. If the farm workers are unable to pay, their land would be confiscated.” – Jobert Pahilga, lawyer of Ambala
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Lito Bais, chairman of Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (Uma)maintained that the DAR should have referred to the signatories to the 1989 Stock Distribution Option instead of the list submitted by the HLI management to the high court.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
“Until now, the Cojuangco-Aquinos have not given back our land and we have not received a single centavo as payment for our land that they sold.” – Alyansa ng Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
"The inclusion of Cojuangco loyalists and dummies in the DAR’s list of beneficiaries is exactly the reason why the DAR’s so-called verification process is a scam and a barefaced maneuver by the President’s family to once again evade land distribution.”
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