Farmers oppose Corona’s inhibition from Luisita case

MANILA, Philippines—Farmers’ unions in the Cojuangco-owned Hacienda Luisita denounced on Thursday the estate management’s move asking Chief Justice Renato Corona, who is on trial before the Senate impeachment court, to inhibit himself from the case.

The Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (Ambala), the United Luisita Workers Union (ULWU) and their mother federation, Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA), said on Thursday the plan showed that the Cojuangcos did not want to, and would not abide by the November 2011 Supreme Court ruling ordering the estate’s owners to distribute the sugar plantation to its workers.

“The long-running land reform syndicate of the Cojuangco-Aquino known as HLI management is pursuing another dirty trick to reverse the SC decision in honor of the dishonorable Cojuangco-Aquino landed aristocracy and the brutal and barbaric hacendero President in Malacañang,” the statement said.

Last November, the Supreme Court voted 14 to 0 to order the distribution of the vast Tarlac sugar estate, which has been owned by the Cojuango family of President Aquino since the late 1950s, to the hacienda farmers who had qualified as land reform beneficiaries. The court also struck down the stock distribution option exercised by the estate management, which enabled the Cojuangcos to retain control of the land.