Next Hacienda Luisita hearing: August 24

Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Renato Corona has set August 24 as the next date for hearing the oral arguments on the Hacienda Luisita land dispute. Since the land dispute was brought to the SC four years ago, the high court began to hear the oral arguments on the Hacienda Luisita case only on Wednesday, August 18. Wednesday's oral arguments began at 2:00 p.m. and ended at 7:10 p.m. Only Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI)counsel Gener Asuncion, HLI corporate secretary Eufrocinio dela Merced Jr., Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation counsel Anacleto Diaz, and Luisita Industrial Park Corp. counsel Mario Luz Bautista were able to present their oral arguments. The counsels for other respondents in the case-- the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC), Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), and farmers' groups -- will face the court on August 24. On December 22, 2005, the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) issued Resolution No. 2005-32-01, revoking Luisita's SDO and ordering the distribution of the hacienda’s land to the farmer beneficiaries. Two months later, on February 1, 2006, HLI asked the Supreme Court to prevent the PARC from enforcing the resolution. During the SC hearing on Wednesday, Asuncion said the PARC can only approve or disapprove the SDO. He added that the PARC cannot revoke the SDO agreement (SDOA) because only a judicial body can do so. However, Associate Justice Jose Perez said that because PARC was the agency that approved the SDOA in May 1989, it should be the one to revoke such. However, Asuncion replied: "We found no law conferring jurisdiction upon the PARC." Under the 1989 SDO scheme, the farmer-tenants received certificates of stocks from HLI instead of parcels of land for them to own and till. In 2005, PARC revoked the SDO scheme, which reportedly failed to fulfill the objectives of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law about promoting social justice and improving the lives of the farmers. PARC also ordered the distribution of some 4,915 hectares of land covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). -VVP, GMANews.TV