This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 17, June 5-11, 2005
House Scolds DLR for
Delay in Luisita Probe
Members of the Department of
Land Reform’s Task Force Hacienda Luisita got a beating from the House Committee
on Agrarian Reform for the much delayed report on its investigation on the
implementation of the Stock Distribution Option in Luzon’s largest sugar estate,
Hacienda Luisita, Inc.
BY DABET CASTAŃEDA After nine months of
investigation, the Department of Land Reform’s (DLR, formerly the Department of
Agrarian Reform or DAR) Task Force Hacienda Luisita (TF-HL) failed to present a
comprehensive report on the implementation of the Stock Distribution Option (SDO)
in Luzon’s largest sugar estate, Hacienda Luisita, Inc. (HLI). This prompted House
Committee Chair Rep. Gregorio Ipong on May 30 to adjourn the hearing. “Hindi
na namin kayo ipapahiya ng husto” (We won’t humiliate you too much), Ipong
told the agrarian officials in exasperation. The hearing was held at the
Ramon V. Mitra Hall at the House of Representatives in Quezon City. The TF-HL was created
pursuant to Special Order No. 789 Series of 2004 in response to the clamor of
the farmworker beneficiaries of HLI for the department to come out with a firm
stand regarding the controversy confronting them and the management of the HLI
and in connection with the compliance of the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) for
the SDO. In the last quarter of
2003, two petitions from the farmworker beneficiaries and the supervisory group
were filed at then DAR. In particular, the supervisory group’s petition
questioned the non-compliance by the HLI management of the MoA while the
farmworkers’ petition called for the revocation of the SDO. After a year, no action had
been taken by the DLR. Since then, calls for the revocation of the SDO has
heightened and, coupled with unfair labor practices and illegal retrenchment
issues, the HLI workers went on strike simultaneously with mill workers from the
Central Azucarera de Tarlac (CAT) on Nov. 6 last year. The strike hogged the
headlines when seven strikers and their supporters were killed during a violent
dispersal at the picketline in Tarlac City. Divided Lawyer Ibra B. Omar Al Haj
TF-HL chair and director of the Bureau of Agrarian Legal Affairs (BALA) told the
committee that the report is taking too long to finalize because the 11-man team
comprising the task force are divided on certain issues. Omar said some of his
colleagues think that RA 6657 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program
should be amended while others say that the matters should be passed on to the
Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE). Other members say that the matters
are agrarian in nature over which the DLR has jurisdiction. Omar promised the committee
that they would resolve the issue by this week.
Controversial conversion One of the controversial
findings of the task force is on the legality of the conversion of the 500
hectares of the HLI land into residential and industrial purposes. While the task force
initial report noted that the conversion was legal given that the land transfer
has been completed when the Presidential Agrarian Reform Commission (PARC)
approved the SDO in 1989, Omar believes there has been a violation of the
conversion because the land in question has not been developed until today. Omar told the committee
that any agricultural land converted for other purposes has to be developed
within five years. If not, the conversion order should be subject for
revocation. It was also Omar who
informed the committee that the conversion was done nine years ago but the land
remains idle. “Mabigat yun, walang nabago dun sa lupa” (That’s
significant, the land underwent no change), he said. The revocation of the land
conversion was also part of the farmworkers’ petition. However, it is the
Petition for Extension filed by the HLI management Nov. 14 last year that the
committee is expediting, Omar said. The HLI management had no
representation during the inquiry. Heavy
military presence Meanwhile, Rene Galang,
president of the United Luisita Workers’ Union (ULWU), who was present during
the inquiry, appealed to the committee to also look into the heavy military
presence now being felt all throughout the 6,000-hectare sugar estate. He said
that eight out of 11 villages comprising the hacienda have military detachments.
According to Galang, the
Northern Luzon Command (NolCom) 7th Infantry Division (ID) has
deployed one company of soldiers that include the 48th Infantry
Battalion (IB) of the 702nd Brigade, the 69th IB and the
24th IB of the 703rd Brigade, and a company of Citizens
Armed Forces Geographical Unit (Cafgu). Scout Rangers from Camp Tecson in San
Miguel, Bulacan and soldiers from the 71st IB from Fort Magsaysay in
Nueva Ecija have also been deployed in the hacienda. “Instead of helping to
resolve the strike, NolCom under Lt. Gen. Romeo Dominguez, is conniving with the
Cojuangco family to terrorize the people and violate their basic rights,” Galang
said in a statement. He added that the soldiers
conduct house-to-house visits and frighten the union members against joining the
picket. The union leader called for the immediate pull-out of the military from
the hacienda. Galang said the deployment
of soldiers in the hacienda escalated after the burial of Tarlac City Councilor
Abel Ladera – a victim of extra-judicial killing - on March 9. It also came in
time for the TF-HL ocular investigation which it conducted on March 15. In a letter dated March 11,
HLI Corporate Secretary Emmanuel Cochico asked the DLR to postpone its
investigation in the hacienda because there have been sightings of armed
elements from the New People’s Army (NPA) inside Hacienda Luisita. The letter also confirmed
the deployment of three army companies from Fort Magsaysay in Laur, Nueva Ecija
to “augment the lone company of soldiers on guard in the area.” Cochico said the HLI
management asked for the postponement of the investigation because they could
not answer for the safety of the DLR officers if and when an armed confrontation
arises. But Galang told Bulatlat
that the deployment of soldiers in the hacienda was meant to instill fear among
the union members and leaders who have stood their ground at the picketline.
Bulatlat © 2004 Bulatlat
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