BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – The Supreme Court has deferred the ruling in the Hacienda Luisita case after the justices opted to conduct further discussion on it.
High Court spokesman Jose Midas Marquez told reporters that the case will be called again in one of the high court’s full court session.
Hacienda Luisita is owned by relatives of President Benigno Aquino III.
The high court on Nov. 22, 2011 ruling ordered the actual distribution of the 4,915.75 hectare sugarcane plantation to 6,296 farmer-beneficiaries and pegged the amount of just compensation to the 1989 valuation of P40,000 per hectare.
However, counsel for Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI), in a motion pending now before the Supreme Court said the 1989 valuation is wrong and that the 2006 market price should be followed where the land price is P2.25 million per hectare.