Workers load newly harvested sugarcane stalks in Barangay Mabilog in Concepcion town, Tarlac province. The area is part of Hacienda Luisita. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – A militant group on Tuesday assailed the “excessive greed” of President Benigno Aquino III’s kin for claiming that they were “underpaid” for the Hacienda Luisita lands acquired by the government.
“President Aquino’s relatives’ claim that they were underpaid over Hacienda Luisita smacks of excessive greed. In the first place, the Cojuangcos do not deserve a single centavo over Hacienda Luisita,” said Kilusan ng Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) chairperson Rafael Mariano.
The KMP issued the statement after Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) complained before the Department of Agrarian Reform Adjudication Board (Darab) that it was “underpaid” and that the amount of P471-million paid to them by the government was “certainly inadequate.”
Mariano, however, insisted that HLI still need to pay the farmworkers P1.3 billion.
“It is totally revolting” that the Cojuangcos still have the gall to claim that they were underpaid when in fact the lands in Hacienda Luisita remains undistributed,” he said.
He added that the President and his family have “perfected the art of milking cash” from the bogus Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), citing that the president’s family continues to bastardize the Supreme Court decision.
He maintained that the Cojuangcos still owe the farm workers a total of P1.33 billion for their illegal sale of the 200 hectares of land in 1996, the Luisita Industrial Park, and the 80.51-hectare lot for the anomalous Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway.
On Monday, the company owned by relatives of President Aquino has complained to the Darab that it was underpaid for Hacienda Luisita lands acquired by the government for agrarian reform in Tarlac province.
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