Supreme Court TRO stops Hacienda Luisita redistribution

The Supreme Court on Friday issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing the government from awarding to sugar farmers the disputed 5,000-hectare Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac owned by the family of former President Corazon Aquino. GMANews.TV learned that the high court, in a resolution dated June 14, issued the TRO instructing Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) and Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman from going ahead with the redistribution “until further orders from this court". Farmers groups vowed to immediately file a motion for reconsideration. “Maghahapag agad kami ng motion for reconsideration at tuloy ang mga piket rally para agad na maipamahagi ang mga lupa sa mga manggagawang bukid," said Carl Ala, information officer of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, with which farmers organizations Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (Ambala) and United Luisita Worker's Union are affiliated. (We will immediately file a motion for reconsideration. The picket-rallies will continue so that the land can be distributed to farmer-workers.) The Supreme Court third division also ordered the Hacienda Luisita Inc. to post a cash bond of P5 million within five days, or else the TRO would be automatically lifted. The family of former President Aquino, who own Luisita, has claimed the decision of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to place Luisita under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) smacked of political vendetta by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo because it came a few months after Aquino joined calls for Arroyo's ouster. A violent dispersal of striking farmers on Nov. 16, 2004 in Hacienda Luisita resulted in the deaths of seven persons and the injury of hundreds more. PARC RESOLUTION The Supreme Court TRO stemmed from the petition filed by the Hacienda Luisita, Inc., questioning the PARC’s resolutions. PARC resolution no. 2005-32-01 dated Dec. 22, 2005, which was approved by the PARC executive committee resolution, adopted the report of the PARC executive committee’s validation committee upholding the DAR recommendation to revoke the stock distribution option plan of the management of Hacienda Luisita. The PARC also ruled to place the Hacienda Luisita under the compulsory coverage of the mandated land acquisition scheme of the CARP. The PARC, nominally chaired by President Arroyo, has the last say whether or not to stop the Stock Distribution Option being carried out in Hacienda Luisita since 1989. Last January, the DAR said it had earmarked P15 billion to acquire 4,915 hectares of Hacienda Luisita. HEARINGS In November last year, the Department of Justice summoned the farmer-tenants of Hacienda Luisita and their representatives in a hearing to evaluate the stock option plan, which farmers entered into in 1987 with the Cojuangco family headed by former President Aquino. Among those summoned by the DOJ panel, which was headed by Undersecretary Ernesto Pineda, included the representatives of the Hacienda Luisita; Jose Julio Zuniga and Windsor Andaya of the Supervisory Group of Hacienda Luisita; and Rene Galang, president of the farmers group Ambala. The PARC executive validation committee sought to determine whether there was a need to cancel the stock distribution option. Pineda said his evaluation committee found that the stock distribution option of Hacienda Luisita failed to improve the lives of the farmers after 16 years. He said the DAR administrative order no. 10, series of 1998 had also been violated in relation to the conversion of around 500 hectares of Hacienda Luisita. Pineda’s committee was also tasked to verify the alleged violations of the memorandum of agreement signed by the owners of Hacienda Luisita and the farmers for the implementation of the stock distribution option, particularly the item which stated that “aside from certificates of stocks, the farmers-tenants would also be given lands of their own after 30 years." Problems were encountered later when the farmers claimed that they did not receive any dividends. The farmers-tenants said the memorandum of agreement was not fulfilled, which reportedly forced them to hold a series strikes that culminated in a bloody confrontation between the farmers and the dispersal unit on Nov. 16, 2004.-GMANews.TV