HACIENDA LUISITA, Tarlac City—Who among the farmers of Hacienda Luisita have a better right to the land?
“Those who fought for the land,” said a woman at Tuesday’s general assembly of the United Luisita Workers Union (Ulwu), one of the farm worker groups in the sugar estate owned by relatives of President Benigno Aquino III.
The more than 100 Ulwu members in the assembly clamored for the purging of the list of the farm worker beneficiaries who would receive land after the Supreme Court ordered the estate’s distribution last week.
Other farm workers belong to the Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (Ambala) and the Farm workers Agrarian Reform Movement-Luisita (Farm-Luisita).
In its November 22 decision, the court set aside the stock distribution option (SDO) and ordered the parceling out of 4,915 hectares of Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) to 6,296 original farm worker-beneficiaries to implement agrarian reform in the sugar estate.
The assembly was called so Ulwu’s lawyers could explain to farmers the court’s decision. Ulwu, however, failed to gather more members because many farmers live far from the assembly area at Barangay (village) Balete.
Lito Bais, Ulwu acting chair, said the group would hold similar assemblies in each of the 10 villages in the hacienda.
Lawyer Cesar Arellano said the farmers understood the decision but many of the concerns they raised could be answered best by their organization.
Primary issues
Arellano said Ulwu and Ambala should deal with the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) as to how the high court’s decision should be implemented. He said the primary issues to be discussed and resolved are the qualified beneficiaries and just compensation.
Ulwu members said they wanted excluded from the beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program the farmers, who they described as dilawan (yellow) and who had always sided with the HLI management.
Mary Jean Taruc, 42, a farm worker from Barangay Asturias, agreed.
“We have been consistent in bringing this case to the Supreme Court, so it’s their time to push this issue,” she said, speaking in filipino.
For Taruc there will be injustice if beneficiaries are not truly qualified.
She said a neighbor was one of those who signed the SDO deal with the HLI in 1989. “Tell me, does he deserve to receive land when he did not join the fight and all he did was to side with management?” she said.
Taruc said many others in the hacienda favored the SDO pushed by the management and not land distribution.
“They were there every time their signatures were sought and money was distributed, and then they are among the land beneficiaries?” she said.
Speedy implementation
Leticia Lapus said she would celebrate her 66th birthday at the DAR office in Quezon City today with fellow Ulwu members to present their petition for a speedy implementation of the court decision.
“I joined all rallies to fight for our rights to the land. This is one rally I will not miss joining,” Lapus said in Filipino.
Another group of women farmers from Barangay Balete lamented that others had branded them as members of the New People’s Army for their vigilance and their strong clamor for land distribution.
“But now that we have won, these people are the ones in front of the line. That’s not right,” a farmer said.
Even the tricycle driver who brought the Inquirer reporter to the assembly site in Barangay Balete came up with labels. “Where are you going ma’am? To the protesters?” he asked.
Told of the court decision, the driver, who said he was also in the master list of beneficiaries, was happy to hear the news. “So that means that I will receive something,” he said.
But the driver was on the defensive when he learned that the decision only named the original beneficiaries. “Those who will not receive land will be angry,” he said.
When he realized that his father was an original beneficiary, the driver ended up saying: “We hope that the land and money could be given before Christmas so all of us can be happy.”