HACIENDA LUISITA, TARLAC, Philippines—Farmers belonging to the United Luisita Workers Union (Ulwu) vowed to continue planting palay and cash crops instead of sugarcane, the vast estate’s traditional crop, to stave off hunger and “break the monopoly of the powerful Cojuangco family in our lives.”

During the observance of the start of protest actions in 2004 at the Cojuangco family-owned Hacienda Luisita on Friday, Lito Bais, Ulwu president, said the management of the estate was trying to entice farmers “to lease their lands to wealthy capitalists for sugarcane production.”

But farmers had agreed to plant only palay, fruits and vegetables as doing so would be more advantageous to them in their current economic conditions, he said.

He said cash crops bring in more money at a quicker pace than sugarcane.

Long wait for returns

He said it takes a year to harvest sugarcane but only three or four months to harvest palay and two-and-a-half months to harvest cash crops like melon and ampalaya (bitter gourd).

Cash crop production also requires far less amounts of investment in terms of farm inputs and labor costs than sugarcane production, he added.

George Gatus, Ulwu sergeant at arms, said if farmers plant sugarcane, they would be forced to deal with the Cojuangco family during milling season.

“We will again be at their mercy,” he said.

He also defended the decision of Ulwu to seek the help of outside financiers who teamed up with farmers to develop the lands.

Under this arrangement, financiers provide the capital but workers continue to be recruited from inside the hacienda.

Arrangement

After harvest, the financiers deduct expenses incurred during planting without interest and then share the rest of the income with the farmers.

They agreed on the distribution of the net income between farmers and financiers.

Gatus said the Ulwu does not get anything from either farmers or the financiers.

“So far there have been no complaints. No aggrieved party,” he said.

He said the arrangement had helped a number of farmers save enough money to finance their own farms the following planting cycle.

Agreements between farmers and financiers are made every cropping cycle.

Less than a thousand hectares of farm lands have been made productive under this system of planting since last year when the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order that stopped the distribution of farm lands in the hacienda.

There are at least 6,000 Luisita farmers in 10 barangays in three towns in Tarlac who are registered at the Department of Agrarian Reform as agrarian reform beneficiaries. Russell Arador, Inquirer Central Luzon