April 24, 2012
The Supreme Court reaffirmed its Nov. 22, 2011, decision, which ordered the distribution of the 4,915-hectare agricultural estate to the 6,296 registered farmworker-beneficiaries.
The ruling dismissed Hacienda Luisita Inc.’s (HLI) motion to clarify and reconsider the high tribunal’s earlier decision, which junked the stock distribution option and ordered HLI to give 4,900 ha of land to farmworkers under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program launched in 1988.
The court also set the 1989 market price for Hacienda Luisita land as a basis for computing just compensation at P40,000 per hectare.
April 25, 2001
The conversion of the town of Isabela into a city was ratified in a plebiscite.
About 92 percent of votes, or 10,169, agreed with the cityhood bid, while 913 disagreed.
The majority vote ratified Republic Act No. 9023, or the Charter of the City of Isabela, which was signed into law by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on March 5, 2001.
Compiled by Kathleen de Villa, Inquirer Research