Luisita farmers ask SC to partly implement distribution of land to them

MANILA, Philippines— Farmers from the Cojuangco-owned Hacienda Luisita on Monday asked the Supreme Court to partially implement its Nov. 22, 2011, ruling ordering the actual distribution of the 4,915.75-hectare sugarcane plantation to 6,296 farmer beneficiaries.

In its motion for partial execution, the farmers asked the high court to immediately transfer the land titles in the name of the Republic of the Philippines as initial step leading to the issuance of the Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) to the farmers.

They said the issues pending before the Supreme Court only pertained to the reversal of the grant to the farm worker beneficiaries of the option to remain as stockholders of the Hacienda Luisita Inc. and to the reckoning period for just compensation on Nov. 21, 1998.

The issue on the acquisition of the land under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, they pointed out, “is no longer a bone of contention” and thus can already be considered executory.

The farmers led by Noel Mallari said “partial execution or implementation of the (November 22) decision in that regard, notwithstanding the pendency of the other issues, may be permissible under the rules on discretionary execution of judgment.”