TARLAC CITY, Philippines—The firm managing the Cojuangco-family owned Hacienda Luisita extended the Nov. 15 deadline for the registration of farmers in the disputed sugar estate, company officials said on Monday.

The extension of the deadline coincided with the fifth anniversary of what militants have taken to calling as the "Luisita Massacre," where seven workers died after striking mill employees and farm workers clashed with policemen and soldiers on Nov. 16, 2004.

In commemorating the event, some 1,000 members of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas and Anakpawis wore yellow ribbons blotched with red ink to represent the bloodshed five years ago.

The Hacienda Luisita Inc. extended the registration indefinitely because of the low turnout of registrants and not due to the supposed failure of the family of Sen. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, the presidential candidate of the Liberal Party, in helping distribute the lands, said Herman Gregorio, Luisita estate manager.

The registration intended to know if the actual tillers include those who agreed to HLI's implementation of the stock distribution option (SDO) scheme in the estate, Gregorio said.

The registration does not affect the status of potential beneficiaries of the land, he said.

Teofilo Inocencio, regional director of the Department of Agrarian Reform, said the agency has been monitoring the situation but it was not going to call the activities in the estate as rampant illegal leasing until there were contracts to prove new arrangements.

But Danilo Pineda, a leader of SDO holders in Barangay Texas (also known as Lourdes), said some SDO holders in the villages took control of 400 hectares and rented these out like private landholdings to rich planters in Nueva Ecija, including those from Taiwan.

The village chief of Balite, Renato Luna Jr., said some striking workers in 2004 were among those who rented out the lands to outsiders.

Joseph Canlas, president of the Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon, said that in few instances, outsiders were tapped to help the farm workers get seeds, pesticides and fertilizers.

Buena Timbol, HLI administrative services manager, said sugar planting by HLI has been confined to at least 50 hectares around the Central Azucarera de Tarlac.

Gregorio said Aquino cannot be dragged into the agrarian conflict because the Aquino family has a minimal stake in the Tarlac Development Corp., the Cojuangco-family owned firm that owns the sugar estate.

Lawyer Antonio Ligon, HLI spokesperson, said Senator Aquino owns 1.1 percent of TDC shares while the Aquino family controls only 4.3 percent.

Aquino's mother, the late former President Corazon Aquino, was a member of the Cojuangco clan.

Timbol said the registration seeks to correct the inequitable use of land by a few.
Gregorio said the temporary restraining order issued by the Supreme Court in 2006 did not stop the HLI from exercising its control over the estate.

"Like a house, you need to put order in it. If we don't act, the outsiders will compete with SDO holders. That will worsen the situation here," Gregorio said.

Concepcion Mayor Noel Villanueva said that as a leader of the Association of Sugar Planters in Central Luzon, he rented 200 hectares from farm workers in Barangay Pando.

The group, he said, paid P6,000 as rent per hectare, another P1,000 to the barangay council and P30 per ton of sugar cane brought to the Central Azucarera de Tarlac for milling.

"We did that to spur some employment. Every help that the HLI was giving to its farm workers and daily laborers stopped due to the [2004] strike," Villanueva said.