10 years after massacre, solon calls on Aquino to distribute Hacienda Luisita to farmers

On the 10th anniversary of the Hacienda Luisita massacre, a party-list lawmaker urged President Benigno Aquino III to instruct the Department of Agrarian Reform to distribute the land to farmers who have been tilling it for generations.

 

“It has been 10 years since the Hacienda Luisita massacre but up to now there is no justice for the farmers. Harassments and killings of farm workers fighting for their right to till in the Cojuangco-Aquino-controlled hacienda continue. If President Aquino really wants to have  a lasting legacy then he should immediately distribute the hacienda for free to the tillers,” Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares said over the weekend. 

In September 2013, the Department of Agrarian Reform said it had already started distributing land titles to Hacienda Luisita farmers. Farmer beneficiaries will have to pay for the land over 30 years.

 

On November 16, 2004, seven farmers pressing for land reform in the Tarlac hacienda owned by the family of President Benigno Aquino III were killed near the gate of the sugar mill there, in what is now known as the Hacienda Luisita massacre.

 

President Aquino was a congressman representing Tarlac at the time the massacre.

 

Militant groups on Sunday marked the anniversary with a picket seeking justice for the farmers gunned down in the 2004 incident.

 

Meanwhile, Renato Reyes, Secretary General of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, called Aquino a “haciendero,” saying the president has done nothing to help his former district constituents.

 

“Ten years have passed yet not one government official has been charged in court and made accountable for the deaths of seven people and injuries to scores of unarmed protesters. Aquino is now president yet he still thinks and acts like a haciendero. He has not done anything to ensure that justice is achieved for his constituents in the second district of Tarlac,” Reyes told GMA News Online in an interview.

 

Reyes also referenced a privilege speech Aquino gave when he was still a congressman, saying the president has failed to keep his promises of justice for the massacre victims.

 

“Whatever happened to Aquino's Nov.16 2004 privilege speech in Congress where he vowed to champion the cause of justice for the victims? All he has championed since is the interest of the landlord class. As in other tragedies, expect Aquino to find another reason to do nothing. Expect another excuse for apathy,” Reyes said,

 

No case related to the Hacienda Luisita massacre has ever made it to court. — Patricia Denise Chiu/JDS, GMA News