Gov’t to distribute remaining portions of Hacienda Luisita land to farmers

DAR Secretary John Castriciones INQUIRER PHOTO/JOAN BONDOC

MANILA, Philippines — The government will distribute Tuesday 112 hectares of land in Tarlac – the remaining portion of Hacienda Luisita – to farmer-beneficiaries under the agrarian reform program.

Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Secretary John Castriciones said the Hacienda Luisita land will be among the 87,645 hectares of land to be distributed to qualified farmers as part of the 31st Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) anniversary this year.

The distribution ceremony will be led by President Rodrigo Duterte at the DAR central office on Elliptical Road, Quezon City.

“Sa Hacienda Luisita, we have around 112 hectares coming from the last 10 barangays which have not been covered from the past administration,” Castriciones told reporters.

“So this will be the completion of the distribution of those lands belonging to Hacienda Luisita,” he added.

CARP is a social justice government program that aims to grant landless farmers and farmworkers ownership of agricultural lands. It was implemented through Republic Act 6657 signed by former President Corazon Aquino in 1988.

The late president has made agrarian and land reform as the centerpiece of her administration’s social legislative agenda. However, her family background and social class as a privileged daughter of a wealthy and landed clan became a lightning rod of criticisms against her land reform agenda.

Duterte earlier said Aquino made an incongruous decision of allegedly excluding the Cojuangco-owned Hacienda Luisita from the government’s agrarian reform program. In 2012, the Supreme Court ordered the distribution of Hacienda Luisita’s 4,915-hectare agricultural lands to the original farmer-beneficiaries.

Castriciones also said that DAR is investigating reports of supposed conversion of Hacienda Luisita land from agricultural to industrial use. /kga