MANILA, Philippines—If presidential aspirant Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III wants the Hacienda Luisita issue to cease being a thorn on his side, he should ask his family to withdraw a petition before the Supreme Court that is blocking the distribution of the property under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), according to farmers’ groups and their lawyers.

Willy Marbella, deputy secretary general of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, said Aquino need not wait for his victory in the presidential election to take concrete steps to remedy the long-standing dispute over the Tarlac property consisting of 6,400 hectares.

Aquino, of the Cojuangco clan that owns the land, is the standard-bearer of the Liberal Party and has led the surveys on the preferred candidates for president.

Jobert Pahilga, lawyer of the Hacienda Luisita workers, said Aquino could take a more definitive stance by asking his family to withdraw the petition in the high court that contests the distribution of the land to farmer-beneficiaries.

“What Noynoy can do, if he is serious, is to withdraw the case in the Supreme Court so that the land could be distributed. He should not wait until he is president. He can talk to the hacienda management to withdraw the certiorari petition so that the temporary restraining order will be lifted and the land could be distributed,” Pahilga said in a press conference.

The petition of Hacienda Luisita Inc. questioned the revocation of the stock distribution option (SDO) that made farmers stockholders instead of giving them land at the hacienda, as required by CARP. The high court has also issued a temporary restraining order stopping the implementation of the resolution revoking the SDO.

Lito Bais, acting president of the United Luisita Workers Union, said the issue had not endeared Aquino to the farm workers, even if he was a son of Tarlac.

“The workers have been saying that if they could vote for his opponent 10 times, they would. With this issue, how could you entrust the whole country to Noynoy when he has failed for a long time to resolve the small issue at Luisita?” he said.

Jules Matibag, another lawyer of the farmers, said the farmers might opt to ask the Supreme Court to cite Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) for indirect contempt for its letter asking the farmers to register by Nov. 15.

He said the move threatened to muddle the issue about who the rightful beneficiaries of the land were, even though a proper listing was already available.

He said HLI could use the list to say who the beneficiaries were and exclude other farmers. But the beneficiaries should already be known because they had registered much earlier.

“The petition in the Supreme Court had been submitted for decision. There is no need to submit any other document. If HLI submits such documents, we say that it is act of indirect contempt because it confuses issues and impedes the administration of justice,” Matibag said.

Aquino, for his part, lamented the Luisita issue was being “politicized,” when the bottom line consisted only of giving the workers what they needed and making the corporation profitable for their welfare.

Aquino said he had been focusing on finding ways to give the workers jobs to improve their lives.

He said the hacienda had been running well for decades until 2004, when the workers went on strike over disputes over the collective bargaining agreement.

“From 1958 to 2004, residents and workers had jobs. From 2004 to 2009, they had no jobs. My focus is how to get them back to their jobs, how to get them jobs,” he said.

“I really would not want to engage in a never-ending debate as far as the details and issues [are concerned]. It’s the companies and beneficiaries who are in a better position to answer questions,” he said.

Asked what he thought about the lawyers challenging him to ask his family to withdraw the Supreme Court petition, Aquino said it was not his family that voted to create the corporation but the beneficiaries themselves.

“The Constitution talks of inviolability of contracts,” he said.

He said his family did not want to prolong the dispute. “We want it resolved as soon as possible.”