A year after Hacienda Luisita massacre
Justice Still Elusive
When will justice be served for the victims of the violent dispersal of
the Hacienda Luisita picket line? Until now, the government agencies that
investigated the incident have not yet identified those responsible for
the wanton violation of human rights.
BY
DABET CASTAÑEDA
Bulatlat
|
JUST: Hacienda Luisita
workers commemorate the first anniversary of their strike by asserting
its legitimacy - on the walls of the Central Azucarrera de Tarlac
BULATLAT FILE PHOTO |
Sixty-four year old Federico Laza’s
voice still breaks and his eyes become watery at the memory of his son,
Jesus. A sugarcane worker at the hacienda, 34-year old Jesus was one of
the seven persons killed in the picket line violence. That the massacre
remains unresolved to this day comes as no surprise, though, to the older
Laza.
“Kapag gobyerno nakapatay, talagang
malayo ang hustisya para sa mga dukhang katulad namin (If the
government kills someone, justice is far from reach for poor people like
us),” he said in an interview at the picket line where he has
stayed and survived for more than a year now.
According to the preliminary report of
the Senate Committee on Labor, Employment and Human Resources Development
(CLEHRD), “there is a prevailing perception that the Philippine National
Police (PNP) is not really serious in identifying the culprits and in
getting into the bottom of the issue (of the Hacienda Luisita Massacre).”
The investigation which saw four
public hearings was conducted by the committee chaired by Sen. Jinggoy
Estrada. He delivered a privilege speech on Nov. 17, 2004, a day after
seven strikers were felled by bullets and others injured in what could be
the most violent picket line dispersal in history.
In his speech, the senator condemned
the “brutal and brazen display of ruthless violence by the PNP and the
military” and called on, among others, the Department of Labor and
Employment (DoLE), PNP and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), to
conduct an inquiry. Representatives of the Central Azucarera de Tarlac
(CAT), CAT Labor Union (CATLU), United Luisita Workers’ Union (ULWU), and
human rights and health organizations attended the Senate investigation.
The perpetrators
Police and DoLE officials testified
during the inquiries that the primary objective of the police presence was
to open CAT’s Gate 1 which gives primary access to the cane trucks in
going to the sugar mill.
DoLE Sec. Patricia Sto. Tomas said,
“the deputization of police personnel was to maintain peace and order and
ensure passage into the gates of Hacienda Luisita.”
Sto. Tomas issued an Assumption of
Jurisdiction (AJ) order last Nov. 10, 2004 and ordered the mill workers to
return to work while ordering the CAT management to give a P15 ($0.28,
based on an exchange rate of P54.42 per US dollar) daily wage increase and
P12,500 ($229.69) signing bonus. The workers originally demanded a P150
($2.76) daily wage increase and P30,000 ($551.27) signing bonus which went
down to P32 ($0.59) and P15,000 ($275.63), respectively. By then, however,
the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) negotiation has reached a
deadlock.
Police tried to disperse the strikers
last Nov. 15, 2004 but failed. In the Senate inquiry, Police Chief
Superintendent Quirino dela Torre explained that on Nov. 16, he “sought
help from the Nolcom (Northern Luzon Command) because of its proximity to
the sugar estate.” He also said the strikers’ ranks already swelled to
5,000.
Since then, Sto. Tomas has been under
fire for allegedly abusing her authority.
Enrile inquired if there was a direct
Presidential authorization to send military troops. Pimentel, on the other
hand, insisted that under Article 7, Section 16 of the 1987 Constitution,
it is only the President who can deploy the military to quell lawless
violence. The legislator blamed Sto. Tomas for the violence that occurred
in the picket line. He urged her to resign “out of delicadeza” since she
acted beyond her authority.
In the inquiry, union officials have
also implicated the Cojuangco family in the massacre.
Sto. Tomas has unwittingly implicated
the powerful family with her own disclosure that she decided to send
military troops after she received a call from Rep. Noynoy Aquino (Tarlac,
second ditrict) informing her that “tension was mounting in Hacienda
Luisita since 50 busloads of sympathizers from neighboring provinces had
arrived to beef up the picket line.” The House representative is the son
of former Pres. Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino of the powerful Cojuangco clan in
Tarlac who owns both the CAT and the Hacienda Luisita, Inc. (HLI) sugar
plantation.
Not keen on resolution
The report by CLEHRD Legislative
Secretary Gemma Genoveva Tanpiengco dated Dec. 1, 2004, stated that after
the dispersal, 110 were illegally detained, 114 were injured and
hospitalized, 32 were hit by bullets, 39 sacadas (seasonal sugar
workers) remained missing after their arrest and 78 were victims of the
looting by the police and military personnel.
However, in the report dated Feb. 3
this year, Enrile and Estrada have said that the PNP is not keen in
resolving the issue at hand.
In particular, Enrile probed on the
police’s non-recovery of the material evidence in the area that was under
its complete control. PNP Deputy General Reynaldo Velasco earlier
testified in the same public hearing that they were not able to recover
the slugs, shells, and cartridges of the weapons that would point to the
ones who killed the strikers.
Velasco added that they were unable to
recover the slugs that would match the firearms that were subjected to
ballistic tests.
During the investigation, Senior Supt.
Arturo Quilop of the PNP-Camp Crame Crime Laboratory (PNP-CCCL) presented
their initial findings. However, Quilop himself could not testify as to
the accuracy of the findings because he was only sent by his officials to
attend the hearings. Quilop said a separate technical group investigated
the dispersal.
This prompted Enrile to remove Quilop
as a resource person of the inquiry and asked that the members of the
technical group that conducted the investigation to submit themselves to
the Senate investigation instead.
Before the hearing adjourned, Estrada
requested the PNP to submit to the committee the 433-page PNP report on
the Hacienda Luisita incident.
But Tanpiengco, in an interview with
Bulatlat, said it has not been submitted to this day. Because of
this, the inquiry has not resumed and Senate has not completed its
investigation.
Other avenues
The House of Representatives (HoR)
also conducted its own investigation. In the preliminary report of the
joint inquiry of the House Committees on Human Rights, Labor and
Employment and Agrarian Reform, it concluded that human rights violations
were committed against the striking workers of Hacienda Luista by the
elements of the PNP, AFP and the DoLE.
It recommended the review and, if
warranted, the repeal of provisions pertaining to the AJ in the Labor
Code. This recommendation is based on the findings of the Center for Trade
Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) that “various violent dispersal of striking
workers that resulted to hundreds of human rights violations are directly
attributed to the AJ.”
The House committees also recommended
the relief and filing of criminal and administrative charges against Supt.
Angelo Sunglao, provincial director of PNP-Tarlac, and Supt. dela Torre as
well as other officers and members of the military and police forces who
violated constitutionally-guaranteed rights of workers.
The committees also recommended the
filing of appropriate charges against Sto. Tomas.
However, Sunglao and dela Torre have
been relieved from their posts even before the House committees’
recommendation. Sto. Tomas has retained her post.
The Commission on Human Rights (CHR)
conducted its own investigation but has not come out with its results.
Case filed
On Jan. 13 this year, 52 of the
victims’ survivors filed criminal and administrative charges against the
HLI and CAT owners, PNP, AFP and DoLE officials.
The criminal charges filed include
multiple murder for the death of Jhavie Basilio, 20; Juancho Sanchez, 20;
Jessie Valdez, 30; Jaime Fastidio, 46; Jesus Laza, 34; June David, 28; and
Adriano Caballero Jr., 23;
Multiple frustrated murder, multiple
attempted murder, serious and less serious physical injuries were also
filed for the wounding of at least 72 individuals, 27 of whom sustained
gunshot wounds.
Those accused as responsible were also
charged with theft and malicious mischief for stealing mobile phones,
kitchenware and sacks of rice, among others.
A check at the office of the Ombudsman
in Quezon City showed that it has ended its investigations and it is now
up for review by the chief ombudsman. Bulatlat
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