Cojuangcos want Corona out of Hacienda Luisita case

President Benigno S. Aquino III gestures during the inauguration of D' LUXE Bags Philippines, Inc. in Barangay. Sta. Rosa, Concepcion, Tarlac. EDWIN BACASMAS

TARLAC CITY—Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) announced Tuesday it would request the inhibition of Chief Justice Renato Corona in the Supreme Court deliberation on the distribution of the vast sugar plantation owned by President Benigno Aquino III’s family and his relatives.

Antonio Ligon, HLI spokesperson, said a motion to be filed in the high court would request that Corona inhibit himself in any decision on cases related to the estate because of his recent statements saying that his impeachment trial was a result of the tribunal’s adverse decision against the hacienda.

“He is no longer free from biases,” Ligon said.

HLI has filed a motion for reconsideration and clarification of the high tribunal’s decision by a 14-0 vote last November 22, junking a stock distribution option (SDO) and ordering the distribution of the 5,000-hectare estate to its 6,296 workers.

The HLI is 70 percent owned by the Cojuangco family’s Tarlac Development Corp. (TDC), while the rest is owned by 6,296 farm workers who agreed in 1989 to the SDO, a mode allowed in the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program of the late former President Corazon Aquino.

Ligon said the HLI maintained that the court erred in determining just compensation and in reversing its decision in giving farm worker-beneficiaries the option to remain as HLI stockholders.

The high court excluded more than 4,000 farm workers, recognizing only the 6,296 who signed the SDO in 1989.

“It is not fair that the Chief Justice should insinuate that the process he is undergoing now is a result of the ruling the Supreme Court had on Hacienda Luisita,” he said.

Ligon said President Aquino had nothing to do with Hacienda Luisita, pointing out that the Department of Agrarian Reform supported the nullification of the SDO.

Tranquil Salvador III, a member of Corona’s legal team, said the Chief Justice’s move on the Hacienda Luisita case was “a personal decision.”

“I don’t want to second guess his decision. If he thinks (inhibiting from the hacienda case) was the right thing to do then I think he will do just that,” Salvador told the Philippine Daily Inquirer. With reports from Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon; and Marlon Ramos in Manila