Hacienda proceeds to be examined by farmers’ chosen audit firm

By: Tetch Torres-Tupas - 11 years ago

Hacienda Luisita INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Supreme Court has granted the request of farm worker beneficiaries from Hacienda Luisita to have their preferred auditing firm to examine the books of Hacienda Luisita Inc. and Centennary Holdings Inc.

In a seven-page resolution made public Monday, the high court appointed Ocampo, Mendoza, Leong and Lim (OMLLI) accounting firm to audit the books of HLI and Centennary Holdings Inc.

Joining the OMLLI are Ms. Carissa May Pay-Penson and the Navarro Amper and Co. (Deloitte) auditing firms.

The panel of auditors “shall determine if the P1,330,511,500 proceeds of the sale of the three lots were actually used or spent for legitimate corporate purposes.”

The panel has 90 days to complete the audit.

“Any contentious issue is to be decided by the court based on the submission of the panel members,” the high court said.

The P1.3 billion to be audited was the amount when the 500 hectare portion of the land was sold to Luisita Realty, Inc. and Luisita Industrial Park Corporation and expropriation of another 80.51 hectare part for the construction of SCTEX.

In 2011, the high court ordered the distribution of 4,335 hectares to the farm workers. The land was originally 6,435 hectares but portions were sold and converted to industrial lot, SCTEX and some were turned to homelots.

The auditing firm will conduct the audit of its own books. This is to maintain the independence of the accounting firm and regularity of the accounting process,” Ambala had said.

The farmers asked the high court to order DAR to engage the OMLL accounting firm—as “the audit firm of choice of the farm workers”—to audit HLI and Centenary Holdings.