Luisita land cost surges to P67,000 per hectare

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—The Land Bank of the Philippines (Landbank) has valued each hectare of land in Hacienda Luisita at P67,957.21, which is higher than the P40,000 computed using the 1989 valuation prescribed by the Supreme Court, a farm leader said on Monday.

That’s what farmers are expected to pay for agrarian land they will get from the sugar estate of President Aquino’s family, according to Antonio Flores, secretary general of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), in a statement.

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) also has reduced the coverage of agrarian reform in Hacienda Luisita from 4,915 ha to 3,394 ha, Flores said.

The distribution of the country’s largest contiguous sugar estate is nearing fruition, as directed by the April 24, 2012 final ruling of the Supreme Court. Spanning Tarlac City, Concepcion and La Paz towns, Hacienda Luisita totals more than 6,200 ha.

No reduction

In a telephone interview, Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes confirmed the high rate set by the Landbank. But he denied KMP’s claim that the size of agrarian land was reduced. He said the Landbank valuation covered only lands with complete segregated surveys.

Flores based his allegations on three Landbank documents addressed to De los Reyes, dated May 6, 14 and 15.

A copy of the May 6 memorandum certified a deposit of

P34 million for the purchase of 497 ha of land as compensation to Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI), the corporation formed in 1989 by the Cojuangco family’s Tarlac Development Corp. and farm workers to manage a stock distribution plan. A stock distribution option, in lieu of actual land distribution, is allowed by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law.

The May 14 memorandum cited the value of 1,093.55 ha of land at P74.2 million while the May 15 memorandum valued 1,804.98 ha of land at P122.4 million.

“The Landbank valuation is way beyond the 1989 valuation of Hacienda Luisita that was pegged by the Cojuangcos themselves at P40,000 per hectare,” Flores said, describing the “lofty” valuation as “another grave injustice.”

No payment

“The KMP has always been saying that the beneficiaries of Hacienda Luisita should not be paying anything for the land but the CARP and the Supreme Court tell them they ought to pay,” De los Reyes said.

But he said the P40,000 rate per hectare in 1989 was the amount declared by the Cojuangco family when it first entered into a joint venture deal to form HLI.

“The Landbank applied a formula using the 1989 valuation and came up with [approximately] P67,000. Divide that by 0.666 hectares because they won’t be getting a hectare each,” De los Reyes said.

No Landbank official in Tarlac could be reached to give details about the valuation formula.

Flores said the Cojuangco family “does not deserve to be compensated even a single centavo” because the clan used government money to acquire the estate in 1957.