For Luisita farmers, struggle continues

LUISITA farmers gather at the Supreme Court in Baguio City in April to await the court’s decision on the agrarian reform dispute in the sugar estate. RICHARD BALONGLONG

Eight years ago on November 6, farm workers at Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac City walked out from the sugar plantation, set up barricades, camped out and called for the revocation of the 1989 stock distribution option (SDO) as a way to implement agrarian reform.

Ten days later, on Nov. 16, violence at the picket lines claimed the lives of seven people and resulted in injuries to many others, in what is now infamously known as the “Luisita Massacre.” Those who died were Juancho Sanchez, Jhayvie Basilio, Jesus Laza, Jhune David, Jaime Fastidio, Jessie Valdez and Adriano Caballero.

In the succeeding months, Tarlac Councilor Abelardo Ladera and Central Azucarera de Tarlac Labor Union (Catlu) chair Ricardo Ramos, both respected leaders of the farming community, were murdered.

Today, amid the euphoria of victory for having the SDO revoked, farmers at the sugar estate owned by the family of President Aquino are back in camp, remembering the many lives lost through the long years of struggle for what they call “genuine land reform.”

Whatever happened to the perpetrators of these crimes?

Gabriel Sanchez, father of victim Juancho, said nothing has come out of the case, which has remained pending before the Office of the Ombudsman in the last eight years. Charged in the case were government soldiers who allegedly shot the farm workers.

During a program on the anniversary of the picket and massacre on Tuesday, Lito Bais, acting chair of the United Luisita Workers Union (Ulwu), told his fellow farmer-beneficiaries: “Let us not forget our history. Our history includes the sacrifices of all those who died in our struggle for genuine land reform.”

Last week, hopes ran high when Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes handed to the farmers a copy of the preliminary and probationary master list of beneficiaries who will be awarded parcels of land from the sugar estate.

Sweet victory

For Bais, the list could have been sweet victory. “Now more than ever, the struggle continues,” he said, while raising questions on some entries.

He asked: How could the Department of Agrarian Reform come up with 6,586 names when the Supreme Court, in its final decision, mentioned only a total of 6,296? In April, the Supreme Court ordered the DAR to distribute 4,915 hectares of land to 6,296 farm workers and scrap the SDO, a scheme implemented in 1989 under which farm workers were to receive shares of stock instead of land.

Many of those on the DAR probationary list are legitimate beneficiaries while many of those on the preliminary master list should not be there, Bais said. Those in the probationary list need to submit more documents to prove that they were qualified beneficiaries.

Sanchez, whose name is on the probationary list, said he has worked at the hacienda since 1963. On the two occasions he was interviewed by the DAR, Sanchez said he had submitted proofs of having worked at the estate.

“I submitted to them a Social Security System identification card, a copy of my pay slip and the certificate of awards for my home lot, and I wonder why I am still on the probationary list,” he said.

Sanchez said that even his parents, who retired in 1986, were not listed, but they had been working at the Luisita farms even when the hacienda was still under the Spanish owners and up to the time when the government, under then President Ramon Magsaysay, granted a loan to the Cojuangcos under the condition that the land will be given to the farmers later.

“My parents should have been given their share,” he said.

Bais brushed aside the oft-repeated generalization that the farmers were not ready to own the land and make it productive. “We are ready, we are people who till the land. What we need is capital so that we do not have to succumb to usurers to make the land productive,” he said.

The capital they need can be taken from their share in the proceeds of the 500 ha sold to Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. and the 100 ha sold to the Bases Conversion and Development Authority for the construction of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, Bais said.

To the DAR, the more tedious part of the distribution is who gets what and where.

Assistant Secretary Teofilo Inocencio, former agrarian reform director in Central Luzon, said that if the current number of beneficiaries on the master list would be the basis, each would have 600 to 700 square meters of land.

Uneven distribution

But, he said, there is an uneven distribution in terms of beneficiaries per barangay vis-à-vis the land area in each village.

Thus, Inocencio said, the DAR is drawing up the best scheme for distribution but it is likely that a farmer living in a specific village will get land in another barangay.

De los Reyes reminded beneficiaries that their refusal to pay the land and failing to make it productive will be bases for delisting a beneficiary.

Amid the clamor from several farmers’ groups that the land be distributed for free, De los Reyes said each beneficiary would have to sign an agreement to amortize payment with Land Bank of the Philippines.

Remedios Rivera, 64, of Barangay Balete, said her family plans to plant palay in their property.

“The land is fertile and can very well grow palay as we have experienced during the last few years. But we also experienced the travails of having to borrow capital from lenders and ending up with nothing at the end of the cropping season,” she said.

For those wanting to plant sugarcane, a cooperative system will be most helpful, Inocencio said.

DAR officials said that after 10 years and after having fully paid their amortization, beneficiaries of agrarian reform can do whatever they want with their property, including selling it.