Hacienda Luisita: Paano ba nagsimula ang Hacienda Luisita, at ano ang batas ukol dito?
From: Noynoy.ph
TRUTH: Sugar and coconut lands were completely left out of the agrarian reform program during the Marcos regime, and so the government could not intervene in activities involving such lands, neither were benefits or protection awarded to farmers because of this. President Cory Aquino remedied the situation by including these lands in the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law, allowing government oversight. The CARP was enacted by Congress in 1988, and upheld by the Supreme Court in 1989.
When Benigno ‘Ninoy’ Aquino was languishing in jail during the Martial Law years, his father-in-law Jose Cojuangco Sr told Ninoy’s wife Cory: “I am willing to offer Hacienda Luisita to Marcos just to get Ninoy out of prison. For Rep. Benigno “Noynoy Aquino” III, Ninoy’s olnly son, the labor dispute is heart-breaking. (Philippine Star, 12 November 2004)
Senator Noynoy Aquino owns only .05% share of the Hacienda, so the hacienda is not his alone to give. Contrary to black propaganda, he had nothing to do with the massacre in 2004. Aquino has also already announced that the Hacienda will be redistributed to the farmer-beneficiaries of the Hacienda by 2015. The Noynoy-Luisita “link” is an issue being exploited by extremist groups, and now their allies, for political mileage.
Hacienda Luisita is a sugar plantation purchased in 1957-58 by an agribusiness group led by Jose Cojuangco Sr. It was bought from a Spanish-owned Compaña General de Tabacos de Filipinas. Under the Cojuangcos, the Hacienda had no record of violence for 45 years.
In 1987, President Cory Aquino issued Presidential Proclamation 131 and Executive Order 229. These outlined a land reform program that would also include sugar and coconut lands: lands not included within Marcos-era agrarian reform protection and benefits.
PP 131 and EO 229 were subsequently confirmed by both houses of Congress composed of popularly elected officials. In 1988, Congress enacted Republic Act No. 6657, or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARP) after extensive multi-sectoral consultations facilitated by the Asian Institute of Management.
The CARP works in tandem with Article XII, Section 4 of the 1987 Constitution, which states:
“the State shall, by law, undertake an agrarian reform program founded on the right of farmers and regular farmworkers, who are landless, to own directly or collectively the lands they till or, in the case of other farmworkers, to receive a just share of the fruits thereof.”
The above would not apply to farmers of sugar and coconut lands were it not for CARP.
In 1989, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of CARP.
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reynz is one Uragon and a Filipino-American, has many years of public accounting & auditing, broadcast investments, housing tax credits and equity investments as his background. Based in the US, he maintains his personal and humor blog at reyna elena dot com. A graduate of Aquinas U, he went to GWU and Temple U in the United States.
P.S.
Somebody requested that I post the video of Hacienda Luisita. Please bear with me dahil I lost the link. I’m waiting for a response. Once I get it, I’ll post it on a separate entry.
Thank you.
Reynz
yes, the cojuangco’s indeed purchased those lands with loans they gor from the “GOVERNMENT” specifically GSIS and a resolution from the Central Bank which allowed them to access a loan from Manufacturer’s Trust. Both loans came with a provision that the lands will be distributed to the farmers. One of the loan stipulated that the distribution be done 10 years after the loan. The loan was granted 1957. It should have been distributed to the farmers by 1967 had the Cojuangco’s honored thier commitment. Don’t you agree that saying that the distribution is long overdue an understatement given these facts? President Noynoy ran on a platform of change. People voted him because he projected that he will carry out the law regardless of the consequences. He should start with Hacienda Luisita distribution.