After two years, it was only in July when Flores and other farmers were allowed to again till their farm lots, a part of the long-running struggle of farm workers in Hacienda Luisita.
Tension and terror arise anew in the Tarlac hacienda.
“The struggle in Hacienda Luisita is the struggle of the Filipino people.”
“We are calling on the new administration to hold all the perpetrators accountable.”
“Let us show the injustice that they did to us. And let us show that we are unbowed and still fighting.”
“We are elated by Ka Paeng’s words. He said no one would be harassing us anymore. We could now go back to our farms.” –Florida Sibayan, chairperson of Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Asyenda Luisita (Ambala)
“The Cojuangco-Aquinos are far worse than drug lords, they are a feudal lord family, they victimize, not individuals, but generations of farmers, and their crime is the mother of all social cancers and injustice in the country, tyrannical monopoly control over vast tracks of land.
For Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA), Visaya deserves to be prosecuted, not promoted.
“Two Cojuangco-Aquinos have won the presidency with the promise to distribute Hacienda Luisita to us farmworkers. But look at what’s happening to us here now,” Sibayan said.
UMA challenged all presidential candidates, especially Aquino’s anointed, Mar Roxas, to speak out against these atrocities.
Behind the barrage of official information from Malacanang and concerned government agencies, what did Aquino and his clan do in Hacienda Luisita?