PARC
Stalls Luisita Land Distribution
A cloud of anxiety now
stalks the ranks of farm-worker beneficiaries of Hacienda Luisita, the
6,453-ha. sugar estate owned and operated by the powerful Cojuangco clan
of Tarlac (120 kms north of Manila). After seeking justice for 37 years,
they are made to wait a little longer after the Presidential Agrarian
Reform Committee announced, October 13, the formation of another committee
to validate the findings of the Department of Agrarian Reform.
BY DABET CASTAÑEDA
Bulatlat
A cloud of anxiety now stalks the
ranks of farm-worker beneficiaries (FWB) of Hacienda Luisita (HLI), the
6,453-ha. sugar estate owned and operated by the powerful Cojuangco clan
of Tarlac (120 kms north of Manila). After seeking justice for 37 years,
they are made to wait a little longer following the Presidential Agrarian
Reform Committee’s (PARC) Oct. 13 announcement regarding the formation of
another committee to validate the findings of the Department of Agrarian
Reform (DAR).
United Luisita Workers’ Union (ULWU)
president Rene Galang said over the weekend they fear that the delay in
the revocation of the Stock Distribution Plan (SDP) will give room for the
Cojuangcos to use their clout to lobby for a reversal of the DAR decision.
On Sept. 30, Department of Agrarian
Reform (DAR) Secretary Nasser Pangandaman referred to the Presidential
Agrarian Reform Committee (PARC) its recommendation to recall the SDP of
Hacienda Luisita.
The DAR had earlier created a task
force to investigate the HLI’s SDP implementation based on two petitions
filed by the agri-corporation’s supervisory group and the farm worker
beneficiaries (FWB) in 2003. The petitions alleged that the HLI violated
provisions of the Stock Distribution Option (SDO) provided for under the
government’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). This option
allows landowners to distribute stocks in lieu of land to their farmers.
The task force started its
investigation in November 2004 after seven FWBs and their supporters were
massacred reportedly by government forces in a violent picket line
dispersal Nov. 16, same year. The FWBs went on strike simultaneous with
that of the mill workers of the Central Azucarrera de Tarlac Labor Union (Catlu)
Nov. 6.
Pangandaman, who also acts as
vice-chair of the PARC, said that the government agency shall convene its
Executive Committee (execom) to decide on the matter and shall announce
its decision in two weeks.
PARC executives have also said that it
is the agency that has the authority to revoke the SDP as it is the
highest governing body of the government’s land reform program. There are
12 other landholdings implementing the SDP, nine of them (all sugarlands)
in Negros and the three others in Iloilo and Davao del Sur.
Since Pangandaman’s announcement, the
PARC execom has met twice. On Oct. 13, the execom told the media that it
has created a validation committee to verify significant matters of the
report. The validation will focus on financial and legal issues,
particularly the auditing of HLI’s financial status.
Pangandaman also said the PARC would
want to make sure that its final decision would not have any loopholes
because the Luisita issue is a big case and it has political
ramifications. This controversial decision comes at a point when Macapagal-Arroyo’s
presidency is highly in question and one of her staunchest critics is
Cojuangco-Aquino.
Speculations are rife that Macapagal-Arroyo,
who is facing ouster moves from various sectors because of election fraud,
among other charges, is using the HLI issue to blackmail Aquino, who has
called for the incumbent president’s removal.
No violation?
In a separate interview, HLI
spokesperson and legal counsel Vigor Mendoza said the management welcomes
the PARC’s decision to validate the DAR’s findings. “There’s more to the
facts of the case and this development has further strengthened our claim
that there never was a violation of our SDP,” he said.
Although Mendoza said that the
management knows its legal options, he, however, could not give details.
He also maintained that the management
is concerned to know what the FWBs feel about the impending SDP
revocation. A referendum is being mulled, he said, to validate in their
own way the DAR findings that showed majority of the FWBs want the SDP
revoked.
Conclusive
Galang however said the DAR
investigation is in itself conclusive. He said most FWBs prefer land
distribution over the SDP. He cited as proof the participation of majority
of the farm and mill workers during the strike. According to him, the
recent strike is the first in the history of the farm workers’ struggle to
own the land since the Cojuangcos acquired the sugar estate from its
Spanish owners in 1958.
The DAR findings showed that the HLI
management violated provisions of the SDP and the Memorandum of Agreement
(MoA) between the management and FWBs entered into in 1989.
Cited as one of the major basis for
DAR’s recommendation to cancel the SDP is the miserable condition of the
FWBs after 16 years of the SDP implementation. With a take home pay of
P9.50 a week, the FWBs live in dire poverty. This, DAR said in its report,
is contrary to what the SDP has envisioned – to improve the FWBs’ quality
of life through greater productivity of the agricultural land.
The DAR report also showed that the
management violated the MoA provision stating that the FWBs are entitled
to a three percent share of the total gross sales from the production of
the land and 33 percent share from the proceeds of the sale of the land.
Actually, the department said, the HLI only provided for three percent
production share and another three percent from the gross selling price of
the 500 has. sold to Japanese investors in 1996. The management even
called the latter only as a “bonus” for the FWBs.
Based on the same report, the
conversion of the said 500 has. from agricultural to residential and
industrial use also violated stipulations under the CARP’s land conversion
policy. Under CARP rules, converted lands should be developed within five
years from approval. After nine years however the land remains idle
thereby leaving the areas unproductive.
The DAR report also concluded that the
conversion itself violated the SDO provision that the agricultural lands
should remain unfragmented.
Also, not all FWBs were given homelots
as provided for in the MoA.
On the issue of stock distribution,
the DAR report criticized management’s practice of pegging the share of a
FWB on the number of man days s/he worked. It is management that assigns
the number of mandays per farm worker. Consistent with this questionable
practice, retired and retrenched FWBs no longer received their shares.
The SDP stipulates, however, that the
stocks should have been distributed within three months of the SDP
implementation and not within 30 years as the MoA prescribed.
The DAR also found ground on the FWBs’
complaints over their inadequate representation in the HLI’s Board of
Directors (BoD) in which they only have four representatives as against
seven by management.
The DAR also upheld the FWBs’ decision
to boycott the BoD elections in 2003 stating that with the lack of
confidence (of the FWBs) on the BoD, “no fruitful and harmonious corporate
activities can be expected as any resistance will be counter-productive,
that to continue operations under the SDP that is challenged will only be
an empty exercise.” Bulatlat
BACK TO
TOP ■
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION ■
COMMENT
© 2005 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Publications
Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided
its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.