Bigger tasks for Luisita tillers

HACIENDA LUISITA, Tarlac City—If there are four sets of numbers that bring smiles to the faces of farm workers of Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac today, these are: 4,915, 6,296, P1.33 billion, and 14-0.

Written on a white board in their nipa shed at the contested 500-hectare RCBC (Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.) property that the farmers call “bungkalan,” the figures summarize decades of struggle to own the land they till.

Last week, they came out victorious in the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court that set aside the stock distribution option (SDO) at the vast sugar estate owned by relatives of President Aquino. The court ordered the parceling out of 4,915 ha of Hacienda Luisita to 6,296 original farm worker-beneficiaries to implement the agrarian reform law.

Still, with the firm belief that the hacienda management cannot turn around the 14-0 decision of the high court even if they file a motion for reconsideration, the farmers say they are not putting things to rest. In fact, they said, they would sustain the vigilance they have shown for decades.

At the leaders’ meeting of the United Luisita Workers Union (Ulwu) on Monday, farmer-representatives from the 10 Luisita barangays reported how their colleagues received the news of the Supreme Court decision.

While they were all jubilant, some feared reprisals. A farmer from Barangay Parang described them as “masaya pero may pangamba (happy but anxious),” while others asked the inevitable: When will land distribution be implemented and how much will each get from the P1.33 billion?

In the meeting, the leaders decided that they would gather at the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) main office in Quezon City on Dec. 1 to push for the implementation of the high court’s order. They would also submit to the DAR their proposal for collective farming and to transfer land to the beneficiaries for free.

The farmers reiterated their preference of one title to the land, with all the names of the original beneficiaries in it.

Historical right

Lito Bais, acting Ulwu president, said he received more than 100 congratulatory messages on Nov. 25 after the high court released its decision.

But he conceded that beyond the jubilation were harder tasks ahead. He said it was only right that the land be given to them for free, chiding President Aquino for saying that the hacienda owners must be given just compensation.

As against what they claimed was their legal right to just compensation, Bais said farmers had historical rights to the property that should have been given to them in 1967.

There is no proof that the Cojuangcos paid back the government funds they loaned from the Government Service Insurance System to pay for the estate, he said. He reminded the Cojuangcos that they pegged the price of P40,000 a hectare of land in 1991 when Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI), the implementing company for the SDO, was being formed.

“Come to think of it, how could it be that the primary capital, which is land, is only 33 percent of the corporation? It was meant to dilute the interest of the farmers in the corporation such that now they want to be compensated at P1 million per hectare, the price they paid for the land that was used for the SCTEx (Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway),” he said.

The other 4,000

The Inquirer sought from the Hacienda Luisita management the list of more than 4,000 stockholders who were excluded by the Supreme Court decision. But a representative said the officials do not know who among the 10,000 farm worker-beneficiaries had been excluded.

Bais, however, said most of the 4,000 additional HLI stockholders were those who took part in short work contracts that involved mostly cleaning up and collecting trash during the milling season. He cited as example his daughter who rendered weekend work to remove sugarcane trash and was given six shares of stocks.

“As to the original beneficiaries, we know who we are,” Bais said. “In fact, even those who did not believe in us have taken interest now,” he added.

Another issue confronting farmers are the sugarcane fields contracted out to planters.

In 2005, when the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council decided to revoke the SDO, farmers occupied the lands, with some getting as much as 100 hectares and others in smaller parcels.

This scenario also became an issue then as those who took large tracts were identified with the hacienda management. In some parts of the estate, barangay officials intervened and contracted out the sugarcane fields to independent planters and distributed proceeds of the land lease to farmer-beneficiaries in equal sums.

Bais said some farmers contracted out for three years the sugarcane fields they had occupied. These farmers, he said, should study how they can recover the land earlier than the maturity of their contracts.

As to those they described as “promanagement” who had occupied the biggest tracts, they have to abide by the Supreme Court decision and give up the property, Bais said. “If they do not want to be part of collective farming, they can only get their prorated share,” he said.

Tarlac City Councilor Emy Ladera Facunla said there is much to learn in the struggle of the farmers.

Facunla, the sister of slain Councilor and farmer leader Abel Ladera, said justice had been served when the court decided to favor the farmers. More importantly, she said. it was a victory for the Filipino farmer.

“Now it can be said, ‘It can be done,’” she said.