MANILA, Philippines?Hacienda Luisita is a 6,000-hectare property in Tarlac straddling Tarlac City and the towns of Concepcion and La Paz. It is as large as the cities of Makati (2,986 hectares) and Pasig (3,100 hectares) combined.
Hacienda Luisita was originally part of the landholdings of the Compañia General de Tabacos de Filipinas, or Tabacalera. The estate was named after Luisa, wife of Don Antonio Lopez, who headed Tabacalera when it acquired the estate in 1882.
The Huk rebellion in the 1950s led the Spanish owners of Tabacalera to sell Hacienda Luisita and the sugar mill Central Azucarera de Tarlac.
In 1958, the Cojuangcos acquired the sugar mill and the estate through a loan from the Government Service Insurance System and a dollar loan from the Manufacturer's Trust of New York, which was guaranteed by the Central Bank of the Philippines.
The property is now owned and managed by Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) which was incorporated on August 23, 1988.
That year, nearly 5,000 of the 6,000 hectares of Hacienda Luisita were placed under the stock distribution agreement between the landowners and farmworkers ostensibly in compliance with the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, described as a centerpiece of the administration of President Corazon Aquino.
The stock distribution option (SDO) was a scheme under the CARP that was first implemented during the administration of President Aquino, a member of the Cojuangco family.
In November 2004, several sugar mill workers were killed and dozens of others were wounded when police and military dismantled barricades set up by the striking workers in Hacienda Luisita. While the National Bureau of Investigation said seven people were killed, the workers claimed they had 13 fatalities.
The following year, the Department of Agrarian Reform canceled the stock distribution agreement on the ground that it had failed to improve the lives of more than 5,000 farmer beneficiaries. In May 2006, the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council junked with finality the motion of HLI to reconsider the revocation of the SDO.
In the same year, the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order to the hacienda owners, which had the effect of blocking the revocation of the SDO.
