This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 38, October 30-November 5,, 2005
Hacienda Luisita workers:
“Ganun
si kapitan. He would risk everything for us. It can only be those who feel
threatened by him and the union who would want to kill him.” Thus said a
Hacienda Luisita worker of murdered union leader Ricardo Ramos.
BY DABET CASTAñEDA HACIENDA LUISITA, Tarlac –
While rain poured all day on Thursday, Oct. 27, majority of the remaining
officers of Hacienda Luisita’s Central Azucarrera de Tarlac Labor Union (CATLU)
met at the village hall of Barangay Mapalacsiao. It was a gloomy day indeed as
the meeting was called to discuss the union’s plans of action after the murder
of their president, 47-year old Ricardo Ramos. Ramos, who was also on his
second term as village chair of Mapalacsiao, was shot at the head around 8 p.m.
of Oct. 25. He died on the spot. Treacherous Romeo Sarate, CATLU
director for the medical department and one of the newly-elected union
spokespersons, called the murder of Ramos as “another treacherous act by the
Cojuangco-Aquino clan.” He said they were on the
verge of sealing a deal with the CAT management after several backdoor
negotiations with Ernesto Teopaco, vice president for operations. Around 700 mill workers
belonging to the CATLU staged a simultaneous strike with about 5,000 plantation
workers of the Hacienda under the United Luisita Workers’ Union (ULWU) Nov. 6
last year. The 6,443-hectare Hacienda Luisita estate is owned and operated by
the family of former President Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino of the powerful
Cojuangco clan in Tarlac. On Nov. 16, seven striking
workers and supporters were massacred in the most violent picketline dispersal
recorded in history. After almost a year of
on-and-off negotiations, Sarate said both union and management have finally
agreed to defy the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) order and give the
workers a P15 wage increase and a P13,000 signing bonus, among others. The DOLE
earlier ordered a measly P12 wage increase and P12,500 signing bonus.
Sarate said the
negotiations with Teopaco should have led to the signing of a Memorandum of
Agreement (MoA) and could have been part of the union’s triumph over the strike. But prior to the backdoor
negotiations with management, the union has petitioned DOLE for the release of
their earned wages prior to the strike, including their 13th month
pay and Christmas bonus for the year 2004. The DOLE should have confiscated some
eight thousand bags of sugar amounting to P8.8 million as early as the last week
of September so the workers could receive their back wages. But Sarate said the CAT
management lobbied for time and promised to release the workers’ earned wages on
Oct. 21. The next day, Oct.22, the DOLE confiscated the bags of sugar. In the
morning of Oct. 25, Ramos, assisted by the DOLE-Region III, led the release of
the earned wages, with each worker receiving around P25,000 each. Together with friends and
some village officials, Ramos was celebrating the union’s victory when he was
shot dead that same night. Hard stance Ramos was “Kap” (short for
barangay captain) to his constituents or simply “Pres” (short for president) to
union members. Either way, Ramos was known to the people of the hacienda as a
firm and dependable leader. In the course of their
11-month strike, Sarate said their president proved he was for the welfare of
the workers and the hacienda people in general. On several occasions, Ramos
proved he could neither be cowed nor bribed. A few days before the DOLE
confiscated bags of sugar from the mill, Sarate said Teopaco called on Ramos to
sign a document stating that the union was already settling its issues with
management, therefore, the levying of CAT property was not necessary. Sarate
said Ramos declined to sign it. Sarate added that what
could have made Ramos a bigger pain in the neck for the Cojuangcos was the
condition he imposed before any MoA could be signed between the union and the
management – that the Cojuangcos should also settle the labor issues between
CAT’s sister company, Hacienda Luisita, Inc., which operates the plantation, and
the ULWU. In the press conferences
held at the picket line, Ramos was always heard saying, “Kung hindi maayos ang
problema ng ULWU, hindi kami papayag na mag-operate ang mill. Hanggat nandito
ang ULWU sa Gate 1, hindi rin kami aalis dito. Mahal naming mga manggagawa ang
mga tao ng asyenda.” (Unless the problems of ULWU are settled, we will also not
allow the mill to operate. As long as ULWU is in strike, we will stay here with
them. We, workers, care for the hacienda farm workers.) Against militarization Witnesses to the killing of
Ramos have said two military men inquired about him a few hours before his
murder. Police investigators named
the two as Army Sgts. Roderick “Joshua” dela Cruz and Romeo Castillo Jr. The two
have been summoned for questioning but Supt. Bienvenido Manga, chief of the
Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) of the Philippine National
Police (PNP), said it was not yet necessary to put them under arrest.
Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan,
commander of the 7th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army (ID
PA), has denied that the two suspected soldiers are from their ranks. But Sarate said the rest of
the union officers and members have no doubt that it was soldiers who gunned
down their leader because Ramos went against the presence and operations of the
military in the hacienda. Around 300 soldiers from
Nolcom were deployed inside the hacienda when the strike started last year.
There are military detachments in all 11 villages inside the hacienda except in
two – Mapalacsiao and Balete. As village chief, Ramos frowned on the
establishment of a detachment inside his village. It was the same with Barangay
captain Rodel Galang of Balete. Ramos also did not allow soldiers to rent a
house inside their village. Expressway In two separate occasions,
Ramos led his constituents in a barricade to stop the construction of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac
Expressway Project (SCTEP). This 90-kilometer government project will stretch
through six villages in the hacienda, eating up at least 77 hectares. The
project is the sixth in Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s 10-point program.
In recent Bulatlat
news articles, it was reported that the human barricades against the expressway
construction were being harassed by soldiers deployed in the hacienda. But
Sarate said that since the presence of the military could not frighten the
people, the contractors or the SCTEP belonging to the Bases Conversion and
Development Authority (BCDA) tried to bribe Ramos the amount of P1.2 million
just so he would allow the project to continue. Ramos refused the amount,
Sarate said. Earlier, Director Ibra
Omar, executive director of Bureau of Agrarian Legal Assistance (BALA) and
Center for Land Use Planning, Policy and Implementation (CLUPPI), issued a hold
order to the expressway project. This was in response to the ULWU petition that
the project should be stopped because it had no conversion orders. Killing spree Sarate blamed the
Cojuangcos for allowing the military inside the hacienda. In a separate interview,
Tarlac Rep. (second ditrict) Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, third generation heir to
the sugar estate, said the presence of the military is to protect the people of
the hacienda from the “bad elements of the society.” The estate has been
declared a “national security threat” after the Nov. 16 massacre when the
Cojuangcos and the military claimed that members of the New People’s Army (NPA)
were among the strikers. But Sarate said it was
clear to them that it is the interest of the Cojuangcos that the military
protects. He said the soldiers would go on house-to-house campaigns and tell the
hacienda workers, “Hindi naman sa inyo yung lupa bakit nyo inaangkin?” (The land
is not yours, why are you stealing it?) This military campaign,
Sarate said, actually intensified after the DAR recommended the revocation of
the Stock Distribution Plan (SDP), a provision under the Comprehensive Agrarian
Reform Program (CARP) that allowed landlords to operate their landholdings as
corporations. Sarate further said the
Cojuangcos have actually allowed the military to use the facilities in the
hacienda. A tour around the estate would show that the military are stationed in
the office of HLI operations manager Rocky Lopa and that detachments have been
put up beside the Aqua Farm near Barangay Balete, the HLI offices and other
company buildings. Sarate said their union
also holds Macapagal-Arroyo responsible for the killing of Ramos and the
intensified military operations in the hacienda. “As Commander in Chief of the
armed forces, she gives orders to the soldiers. The way the military is
operating in our area and the whole region of Central Luzon, it’s as if she has
given the military a blanket authority to execute those who are fighting for
their rights and livelihood,” he said. Bulatlat © 2005 Bulatlat
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Bloodied But Unbowed
Union grieves
for murdered Hacienda union chief
Bulatlat