Danding Lords Over 11 Haciendas in Negros

The plight of farmers and farm workers in Cojuangco-owned lands in Negros Occidental is etched in years of feudal and semi-feudal bondage. As the farmers’ hands are calloused by ages of tilling the land they never call their own, the Cojuangcos continue to lord over 11 haciendas spanning more than 5,000 hectares in Negros Occidental.

By KARL G. OMBION
Bulatlat

BACOLOD CITY – Is Hacienda Balatong another Hacienda Luisita in the making?

Residents of Hacienda Balatong fear for the worse as what they go through is the same as their counterparts in Hacienda Luisita – scene of the recent massacre of 14 striking workers in Tarlac City, northern Philippines.

Hacienda Balatong adjoins the towns of La Castellana, Isabela and Hinigaran in central Negros, 70 kms from Bacolod. It is composed of several lots with an aggregate area of about 1,200 hectares. Balatong is one of the 11 haciendas spanning 5,000 hectares, all owned and controlled by Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco, Jr. (ECJ), located in three cities and five municipalities in the central and southern parts of Negros Occidental. (See Table below)

Background

The haciendas were acquired by the Cojuangcos when he bought several parcels of land in various parts of the country in the early 1980s. Thousands of farmers and farm workers were ordered to leave but hundreds, particularly in Hacienda Balatong, refused to do so.

In 1990, the provincial office (PO) of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) issued a notice of coverage under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) over Hacienda Balatong. However, the DAR national office told the DAR PO not to put the hacienda under CARP as there were still sequestration proceedings involving the lots in the hacienda at the Sandiganbayan, the anti-graft court. Later, the records of the coverage were mysteriously lost.

In 1996, the Sandiganbayan ordered that the landholdings may be covered by CARP even if the owners of the lands were not yet determined. It may be recalled that Cojuangco was a close ally of the late President Ferdinand Marcos and that the latter’s hidden wealth was allegedly under the name of his relatives and close friends.

Corporative scheme

Consequently, Cojuangco drew up a plan for the coverage of his properties under the voluntary land transfer/direct payment scheme (VLT/DPS) and joint venture project, which he dubbed “corporative scheme.”

He wanted to form a joint venture corporation (JVC) between his agribusiness corporation and other investors on one hand and the cooperative of agrarian reform beneficiaries on the other.

Under the VLT/DPS Agreement, the beneficiaries have to pay Cojuangco P350,000 ($6,241.08, based on an exchange rate of P56.08 per US dollar) in 10 years with a grace period of five years. The VLT agreement was encouraged by the DAR personnel, since government has no more funds to pay owners like Cojuangco for the land they own.

“Godfather of land reform”

On Oct. 2, 1998, then President Joseph Estrada and DAR Secretary Horacio Morales were among the guests during the distribution of CLOAs covering 3,773.5 hectares of the Cojuangco landholdings and the signing of MoA to enter into the joint venture.

Cojuangco announced that he was instead giving his lands worth P1.5 million ($26,747.50) for “free” to his farm workers. Estrada then proclaimed Cojuangco as the “godfather of land reform.” However, up to now, there is no legal proof of the free distribution of land taking place.

Farm workers say Cojuangco implemented a “buy-back-scheme” so that they will be forced to give up their land rights in exchange for P50,000 ($891.58) payable in 10 instalments within five years.

More exclusions

Around 5,000 farmers and farm workers registered in 1995 and 1996 at the DAR became agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) of the Cojuangco properties. More than 3,000 of them, however, were excluded from the CLOAs. No public screenings of beneficiaries were reportedly conducted, and those excluded were not informed as to the reasons why.

In addition, some of the 1,206 ARBs named in the CLOAs were not qualified as they held managerial positions. Hundreds of those excluded have been retrenched by the ECJ & Sons Agricultural Enterprises Inc., who consequently filed illegal dismissal cases against the corporation.

At least 500 retrenched farm workers, many of them CLOA holders, ended up either unemployed or forced to work in other haciendas receiving compensation way below the minimum wage.

Another Hacienda Luisita?

The lands supposedly covered under VLT/DPS are now owned not by the ARBs but by Cojuangco.

ARBs stressed that Cojuangco merely used the “corporative scheme” to make it appear that agrarian reform has been implemented.

Richard Sarrosa, chairman of the Negros chapter of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP, Peasant Movement of the Philippines) told Bulatlat that what happened to Hacienda Luisita may also happen to the farmers and farm workers in Hacienda Balatong and other Cojuangco properties in Negros Occidental because “the ARBs’ right to land is being violated.”

Sarrosa said, “The Cojuangcos in Negros may appear more philantrophic because of their enormous donations and pledges to civic actions, schools, teachers, and church programs, but they are still responsible for the repression that is happening in their haciendas.” He cited the reported massacre of children spider hunters by Cojuangco’s security guards in La Carlota and his alleged use of military security forces and the Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPA-ABB) in other parts of Negros. Bulatlat 

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