Group revives raps over 2004 ‘Luisita massacre’
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—Because no one has been held liable for the 2004 killing of seven striking workers in Hacienda Luisita, a group supporting the victims’ families are filing anew a complaint of multiple murder against relatives of President Aquino, the military, the police and labor officials.
The Sentro para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo (Sentra) said it was holding these officials and agencies responsible for the so-called “Luisita massacre” at Gate 1 of the sugar mill Central Azucarera de Tarlac (CAT) in Tarlac City on Nov. 16, 2004.
In a July 11, 2005, ruling, the Office of the Ombudsman first cleared Mr. Aquino, who was then serving as Tarlac congressman, of multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder. The charges arose from the shooting and killing of Jaime Pastidio, Jhaivie Basilio, Adriano Caballero, Jessie Valdez, Jesus Laza, June David and Juancho Sanchez.
In August 2014, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales dismissed an omnibus motion filed by Sentra on behalf of Gabriel Sanchez, Violeta Basilio, Luisita Versola and Florida Sibayan to reopen criminal and administrative cases against Mr. Aquino’s relatives, several officials and private persons for the strike deaths.
The judiciary provides a 20-year prescription period for the filing of criminal cases from the time the offenses were committed, Sentra lawyer Jobert Pahilga said on Monday.
The killings took place during a riot 11 years ago when soldiers and policemen tried to reclaim Gate 1 from striking CAT employees and Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) farm workers.
CAT employees were demanding higher wages and additional benefits at the time. HLI farmers, on the other hand, were seeking the distribution of agrarian lands at the sugar estate owned by Mr. Aquino’s grandfather since 1957, instead of stocks shares.
Then Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas assumed jurisdiction over the strike, which was entering its third month.
The Sentra complaint would include multiple frustrated murder charges for the injuries suffered by 129 workers and their relatives, Pahilga said, following the Ombudsman’s decision last year to reject their bid to reopen the case for insufficiency of evidence.
The motion was directed at former Armed Forces chief of staff, Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr., Sto. Tomas, Labor Undersecretary Manuel Imson and court sheriff Francis Reyes.
The private respondents in the complaint were Mr. Aquino’s uncles and Hacienda Luisita owners Pedro and Jose Cojuangco, Ricardo and Jose Manuel Lopa and sugar mill executive Ernesto Topacio. Pedro Cojuangco died last year.
On Dec. 10, 2010, an Ombudsman division tasked to investigate the involvement of military personnel absolved Catapang, then an official of the military’s Northern Luzon Command based in Tarlac, of responsibility for the violence.
“Our lament is that despite the findings of the [National Bureau of Investigation] that the self-defense excuse of the military and the police had no basis, the Ombudsman found them to have no liabilities in the killings,” Pahilga told the Inquirer.
In congressional hearings held in the aftermath of the “Luisita massacre,” Mr. Aquino and representatives of CAT and HLI denied ordering the use of force to break the picket line and resume ingress to the sugar mill.
“I think the incident is really a labor issue,” HLI spokesperson Antonio Ligon said when sought for comments on Monday. Ligon said more than 4,000 hectares of HLI land had been given by the Department of Agrarian Reform to more than 6,000 farm workers.
“We need to really study how the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program impacted or affected the farm worker-beneficiaries,” he said.
Rafael Mariano, chair of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, said: “Eleven years after the ‘Luisita massacre,’ no one was brought to justice, no arrests were made and the perpetrators remained scot-free.”
