THEY WERE QUICK in computing how much they will get from their shares if they vote for the stock distribution option (SDO). They were quick in saying they have no means to sustain productivity on the land.

For them, the quick fix to an empty purse is attainable in a few days, even jesting they chose ?pera? (money) over ?bayong? (native bag) and that soon too, ?balik trabaho na (back to work).?

This was how a group of women from Barangay Parang in Concepcion, Tarlac, reacted to information relayed to them on Friday when highlights of the compromise agreement on the direction of agrarian reform inside the Cojuangco family-owned sugar estate was presented to an assembly of 800 people at the club house of Las Haciendas de Luisita.

The assembly had a very brief program. Key points of the agreement were presented to the assembly by lawyer Vigor Mendoza, Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) vice president, and a couple of questions were entertained. Lawyer Fernando Cojuangco, HLI chief operating officer, read his brief message in Filipino and the document was signed. The whole exercise was completed in less than an hour.

Then the assembly was told a referendum was to take place in their villages over the weekend but should they want to start voting that day, they could do so.

Soon enough, tables were designated for each barangay in another room of the club house and while snacks were being distributed, farmers waited in line for their turn to sign documents.

Two sets of signature forms were set on each table?one is for SDO and the other for land distribution. A farmer needed only to affix his signature to signify his choice.

Heartbreaking

To Tarlac City Councilor Emy Facunla, seeing busloads of farmers being shuttled to the club house for the signing last week was heartbreaking. ?Parang nilaro ang kahirapan ng tao (It?s as if they played around with the people?s poverty),? she said.

Facunla said the HLI should have been more transparent. ?The referendum, if one may call it, should have been done in the barangays and the contents of the agreement discussed well and the agreement itself shown to the farmers,? she said.

Facunla said she would file a resolution at the city council on Wednesday to seek an inquiry on the recent development at Hacienda Luisita.

In an earlier interview, HLI vice president Mendoza said the process was above board. ?This is just consensus-building that is in accordance with the compromise agreement signed by the HLI management and workers? groups of Hacienda Luisita,? he said.

?I don?t know what law they (the leaders of hacienda workers) are citing. But there is no law that governs this consensus-building,? he said.

Mendoza said the management made sure that the process would be transparent.

Choosing land

?Kung hindi daw boboto walang pera (We would not receive money if we do not vote),? said Melania Ladera, 59.

Ladera said this was the message circulated in her village of Balete on Sunday, which prompted her to join her neighbors when the vehicle that would ferry them from their village to the club house arrived.

Still, she said, she chose land. While signing up, she said someone chided her that if she opted for land, ?tatrabahuin mo ang lupa (You will have to work on the land).? Her response: ?E, di magtrabaho (Then, I?ll work).?

Asked why she chose land, Ladera said: ?Makakabuti ito ng buhay. Magtatanim ng palay at gulay (This would improve my family?s life. We will plant palay and vegetables).?

Ladera said she started working at the hacienda in 1967, when she was 17 years old, as sugarcane planter. She and her husband are members of the United Luisita Workers Union (Ulwu). Her husband, who worked as a foreman, had retired from work two years ago. They have five children, all of whom completed high school but none went to college as they could not afford the expenses.

Choosing stock

Like most farmer-beneficiaries who chose shares of stock over land, Enrique Biag, 63, had the same reason. ?Matanda na ako at walang pamuhunan (I?m old and I don?t have money for business capital),? said Biag, a farmer from Barangay Pando.

He said he would be happy if he could convert his 33,000 shares at HLI into cash. He said he did not really know how much these were worth but he estimated this to be ?about P33,000.?

Did he know that the par value of each share is P1.27, as announced during Friday?s assembly? Biag said he did not. But all he knew was that he would receive money if he signed for the SDO.

Biag, also a member of Ulwu, said he served the hacienda as a driver for more than 31 years. His service was cut short in 2004 when he received a notice that he was being retrenched.

The HLI gave him a separation pay of P253,000, which he used to buy a passenger jeepney. Since then, he has been plying the Central-Tarlac City route. He said he was also given a 240-square meter residential lot in Barangay Pando.

Unlike Ladera and Biag, 37-year-old Crisanto Andaya did not vote at the referendum. He has worked at the hacienda for 14 years and has accumulated 8,000 shares but he was firm not to take part in the process.

?We have petitioned for land distribution so why is this referendum needed?? Andaya said.

Since the hacienda stopped operations due to labor and legal disputes in 2005, Andaya had taken on odd jobs to make both ends meet. At the moment, he drives a tricycle to provide for his family. With a report from Russell Arador