DAR to give out 368 ha more in Hacienda Luisita

SUGAR workers in Hacienda Luisita E. I. Reymond T. Orejas/Contributor

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has started distributing 368 hectares owned by relatives of President Aquino in Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac province.

However, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) called the move a “maneuver” to displace tillers and to use taxpayer money in paying the landowner.

“Obviously, the Cojuangcos are once again in connivance with the DAR in employing the bogus Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) to deny farmers of their rights to the lands,” Antonio Flores, KMP secretary general, said in a statement.

Assistant Agrarian Reform Secretary Justin Vincent La Chica said plots in the sugar estate had not been raffled off.

KMP called this the “tambiolo” system, which, it said, was how the DAR distributed the 4,500 ha that the Supreme Court ordered in 2012 to give to more than 6,000 farm workers who agreed in 1989 to receive shares of stock instead of land.

Hacienda Luisita spanned more than 6,000 ha when the plantation and its sugar mill were bought by Mr. Aquino’s grandfather, Jose Cojuangco Sr., in 1957 with a promise of land reform.

In 2012, the drawing of lots determined the location of lands, each spanning 6,600 square meters. Without capital to grow cash crops, most of the beneficiaries rented out their lands to sugar planters.

While no raffle had been done for the 368 ha, the DAR office in Tarlac released a preliminary list of 1,717 beneficiaries on Dec. 29, more than two years after the area was issued a notice of CARP coverage on Dec. 17, 2013.

The landowner, Tarlac Development Corp. (Tadeco), protested the coverage, saying the property had been classified for industrial use.

The land, located in the villages of Balete and Cutcut in Tarlac City, was not part of those placed under the stock distribution option in 1989 or ordered distributed by the Supreme Court, La Chica said.

A 50-ha solar power project has been started by a German firm in Barangay Balete.

“Under the rules of the DAR, it can proceed with the acquisition and distribution process short of the cancellation of the title of the landowner and the deposit of the just compensation of the landowner pending the resolution of a protest lodged against the coverage,” La Chica said.

He said the list was preliminary, with the DAR giving the public until Feb. 4 this year to qualify as beneficiaries. Interviews and submission of documents started on Jan. 5.

“The determination of the qualification of beneficiaries follows a process … we take pains to ensure that we come up with a proper list,” he said.

Flores said the government paid P471.5 million to the Cojuangco family for the final 4,099 ha given to farm workers.

Hacienda Luisita Inc., the company formed by Tadeco and farm workers in 1989 to manage the shares of stock, asked for higher compensation for the land. The case is pending in a Regional Trial Court in Tarlac. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon