MANILA, Philippines?Stung by criticisms about Hacienda Luisita, Liberal Party standard-bearer Senator Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III on Monday said his family could have earned P3 billion from selling the large sugar plantation.

Aquino said the 4,500-hectare plantation could have been sold at P4.5 billion, with the real estate price of P100 per square meter, if his family did not care about the farmers and only worried about its interests.

"Our adversary portrays us as being rapacious about the land and we supposedly do not want to let it go but the truth is, if we sell this, which is part of the Agrarian Reform Program, we can sell the 4,500 hectares at P100 per square meter and get around P4.5 billion," Aquino said in an interview on GMA 7?s morning show "Unang Hirit."

"Seventy percent of that (or P3.15 billion) would be ours. The debts of the company would be paid, and there would still be a big enough amount left in the bank," he added.

Aquino, who owns 0.04 percent of the plantation shares, said selling it would also remove Hacienda Luisita as a thorny "political issue" that has been used against his family since the presidency of his mother, Corazon Aquino.

"If we were only after our personal interests, we would have done that and the issue of Luisita would be over," Aquino said.

In a previous interview, Aquino claimed that his family did not sell their interest in the plantation because they were worried if the new owners would still provide jobs for the farmers there.

"We just cannot say ?You're on your own.? We cannot do that," Aquino said, adding that if the plantation were sold, the new owners should also make sure that the farmers have employment.

The hacienda, however, is currently embroiled in a legal case that is still pending before the Supreme Court after the government declared as illegal the stock option scheme for Hacienda Luisita.

Aquino?s sisters also said that it was hard finding a buyer for the plantation because of its labor problems and large debt.