No valuation yet of Luisita land–DAR

There is no official valuation of Hacienda Luisita yet, Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes said Friday.

The figures quoted in the media referring to the value of the huge sugar estate in Tarlac owned by President Benigno Aquino III’s family that the Supreme Court has ordered redistributed, are all “speculation,” De los Reyes said.

The value of Hacienda Luisita would have to be computed by the Land Bank of the Philippines once the Supreme Court becomes final and executory, he said.

“Until the LandBank opens the books, all figures are speculation,” De los Reyes said.

In a landmark decision on Nov. 22, the high court nullified the stock distribution option (SDO) exercised by the Hacienda Luisita management and ordered that the land be given to 6,200 farmers who had qualified as beneficiaries under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

The high tribunal also ruled that the estate’s owners should be given “just compensation” in exchange for the 4,900 hectares of land that will be placed under CARP, which became law under former President Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino, Mr. Aquino’s late mother.

De los Reyes said the figure that groups and the media have been citing, which is around P40,000 per hectare, is not the actual valuation of Hacienda Luisita.

“I think it is based on the appraisal in 1989,” he said.

The appraisal made by the company two decades ago is different from the computation of the land’s value under the CARP, he said.

He explained that land valuation under CARP is based on three factors—the capitalized net income over a period of years, the comparable sales of similar lands, and the market value.

To determine all of these, the Landbank will have to look into the accounts of the Luisita management, De los Reyes said.

Thus, until the Supreme Court gives the DAR and the LandBank the go-signal to check the Hacienda Luisita books, all numbers on the valuation are “baseless,” he said.

The valuation of Hacienda Luisita will be crucial in determining how much the eatate’s owners, the Cojuangco family, which acquired the land in the late 1950s, will be compensated.

Ten of the 14 Supreme Court justices who unanimously voted to give the land to farmers said the value of Hacienda Luisita should be computed based on prevailing prices in 1989.

The valuation of one hectare of Hacienda Luisita land ranges from P40,000 to P170,000, depending on the source being quoted and the date the appraisal was made.