SC: No decision yet on Hacienda Luisita

MANILA, Philippines—The Supreme Court has yet to render its decision on the pending motions asking for the unconditional distribution of Hacienda Luisita to over 6,000 registered farmworkers-beneficiaries of the vast sugar plantation owned by the family of President Aquino.

Jose Midas Marquez, the court administrator and spokesperson, said the motion for reconsideration filed by the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council and the farmers’ group Ambala were taken up during the high tribunal’s regular en banc session on Tuesday.

“The resolution on the Hacienda Luisita case was deliberated on, but none came out,” Marquez said.

Asked why the high court did not make a ruling on the land dispute issue, Marquez said the court en banc was still waiting for the decisions of other justices.

Earlier in the day, a senior court official told the Inquirer that at least eight justices voted to direct Hacienda Luisita Inc. for the immediate distribution of the agricultural estate owned by the family of the President’s mother, the late former president Corazon Aquino.