Aquino family to keep 1,500 hectares

HACIENDA Luisita workers in one of their protest rallies. E.I. REYMOND T. OREJAS/INQUIRER CENTRAL LUZON

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—The family of President Aquino is retaining more than 1,500 hectares of Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac province after the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) finishes the distribution of land in the sugar estate through the government’s agrarian reform program.

The stocks distribution program (SDP) in 1989 covered only 4,915.75 ha, which was why the court ruled only on these and not on the whole 6,443 ha of the hacienda, the high court’s Nov. 22, 2011 resolution showed.

Under the SDP, which was later revoked by the high court, farm workers were allowed to get shares of stock instead of land to implement agrarian reform.

As of Aug. 5, close to 3,000 of more than 6,000 farm workers in Hacienda Luisita have agreed to pay and till the 6,600 square meters of land each is getting from the sugar estate.

At least 530 farm workers in Barangay (village) Cutcut signed the applications to purchase and farmer’s undertaking (APFU) while 568 in Barangay Lourdes, 328 in Barangay Bantog, 348 in Barangay Asturias, 618 in Barangay Motrico and 507 in Barangay Pando signed their APFU between July 18 and Aug. 5, reports from the Department of Agrarian Reform showed.

The Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (Ambala) and the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) have criticized the allocation process, reduction and payments of lands and individual titling of lands, saying these opened the beneficiaries to more forms of exploitative arrangements.

The DAR figures mean that of the 3,383 farm workers in the six villages, only 484 have not yet signed the APFU.

At the rate the activities are being done, as requirements for the generation of titles called certificate of land ownership award (CLOA), almost half of the 6,212 farm workers qualified to receive 4,099.91 ha had been reached, Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes said by telephone on Wednesday.

The 4,915 ha that the Supreme Court had ordered to be distributed in its ruling last year are now down to 4,099.91 ha, De los Reyes said.

He said the high court deducted the 500 ha in Barangay Balite that were sold to the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) and the 80.15 ha where a section of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) was built.

De los Reyes said after the survey, the DAR also excluded the areas used as approach of the SCTEx and for a cemetery. The rest are common areas, like roads, which have also been excluded from the area that would be distributed to farmers.

De los Reyes said the lands could not be sold 10 years after these were distributed through agrarian reform.

While the law allows that such type of lands could be leased out, the approval of the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council should be sought, he said.

The allocation of lots and the signing of APFU are next set in Barangay Mabilog today (Thursday, Aug. 8), Parang on Aug. 12, Balite on Aug. 15 and Mapalacsiao on Aug. 19.

The DAR has posted notices informing that farm workers can still avail themselves of lot allocation certificates and sign APFUs.

During the lot allocation in Barangay Lourdes last month, Estelita Bermudo, 65, said she was happy to have a lot that she could call her own but she was at a loss when asked what she would do with her property.

“I cannot sell my land within 10 years and they told me that I should till the land. I’m single and sickly and I cannot till the land on my own,” said Bermudo.

This instruction, she said, was clear when she signed the APFU. But Bermudo’s nephew, Bernardo Pineda, also a beneficiary, came to her rescue. “We will till the land for her,” he said.

Pineda, 42, had worked at the hacienda since he was 15, starting out as a weed clearer and later as sugarcane planter.

He said he and 16 of his relatives were given land and they chose to have adjacent lots near the SCTEx.

Thus 17 names with respective lot assignments are in their common Lot Allocation Certificate (LAC). Pineda’s group has 11.2 ha to till.

Noel Pineda, Lourdes village chief, said they were hoping the government would give farm workers financial assistance to help them start anew.

He said the barangay government would ask the National Irrigation Administration to reactivate irrigation in the area so farms would have steady supply of water. With a report from Jo Martinez-Clemente, Inquirer Central Luzon