Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga—Farm workers waiting to own lands in the sugar estate of President Aquino’s family in Tarlac and groups opposing the creation of a 12,000-hectare freeport in northern Aurora are gathering at the Supreme Court on Tuesday to protest the first day in office of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.
“It’s a declaration of war against Sereno and 35 more appointees of [President Aquino] to the judiciary,” said Salvador France, vice chair of the fisherfolk organization Pamalakaya, in a text message on Monday.
Randall Echanis, deputy secretary general of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, said Sereno could drag the Supreme Court-approved distribution of 4,915 hectares in Hacienda Luisita for “another two decades, at the very least” or support its non-distribution.
Echanis said KMP had anticipated this scenario because Sereno had voted to compensate the Cojuangco family using a higher value for the lands that would be distributed to 6,296 farm workers.
The high court upheld thrice the 2005 resolution of the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council to cancel the stocks distribution program and give to farm workers the bulk of Hacienda Luisita lands, which Aquino’s grandfather, Jose Cojuangco Sr., bought on government loan and guarantee more than 50 years ago.
But Echanis said the court’s April 24 resolution gave the Cojuangcos the “opportunity to further derail and even evade land distribution” because the high court left the matter of just compensation to the Department of Agrarian Reform and Land Bank of the Philippines and for review by a regional trial court that will act as a special agrarian court. The court set 1989 as the date of valuation.
KMP wants DAR to cancel the land titles in Hacienda Luisita and distribute the lands for free.
“We will closely watch her moves on controversial cases pending before the court, like the coco levy funds, Hacienda Luisita, Hacienda Looc, Hacienda Yulo and the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport (Apeco), among others,” Echanis said in a text message.
Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes said his department was completing the last set of interviews and verification among beneficiaries based on a 1989 list of stocks distribution beneficiaries.
France said Sereno’s credibility would be tested by how she would act on a case questioning the constitutionality of laws that created Apeco.
Pamalakaya and the party-list group Anakpawis filed before the court a petition on this issue last year. The groups, in May this year, appealed to the high court to speed up the resolution of the case.
In Isabela, former Justice Secretary Silvestre Bello III said Mr. Aquino made a good choice when he appointed Sereno to head the judiciary.
Bello said Sereno’s appointment will pave the way for a crusade in improving the justice system.
“Hopefully, she can improve the judiciary and the justice system. Only, my reservation is she is young and she has a boring job, a demanding job,” he said. (With a report from Villamor Visaya Jr., Inquirer Northern Luzon)