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SAN FERNANDO, Philippines — Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) is giving farm workers until Oct. 30 to stop planting and occupying portions of the 6,453-hectare Tarlac sugar estate rendered idle by a 2004 bloody labor dispute and an agrarian case pending in the Supreme Court.
More than 500 families received copies of a memorandum issued by Herman Gregorio Jr., HLI assistant manager in the Cojuangco family-owned estate, according to Joseph Canlas, chair of the Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon (AMGL).
Teofilo Inocencio, Department of Agrarian Reform regional director, said he was still confirming the number of families who had received the memorandum dated Dec. 18, 2008.
The new order sparked protests again from more than 100 members of the United Luisita Workers Union (Ulwu) who joined the camp-out of the AMGL in Congress and a dialogue with DAR officials on Tuesday.
Ulwu and AMGL leaders were to meet with officials of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines this week to seek support in their appeal to the Supreme Court to resolve the case in their favor.
The groups were also scheduled to picket the high court.
Gregorio said the notice was issued to “preserve the tone of peace, harmony and unity in HLI.”
“While we admit that we have already accomplished this to a certain degree, we [are] still exploring other possible ways and means to pave the way for an ultimate and grand solution to this [agrarian dispute],” he said.
This was the first time that HLI was known to have issued such order. It came as HLI confirmed reports that the “de facto lease of HLI lands to so-called financiers has risen to uncontrollable proportions where only a limited few are benefiting,” Gregorio said.
The lands include those leased to Taiwanese companies growing melons and other cash crops, Inocencio said.
Ulwu members cultivated some 2,000 hectares in the estate to grow food crops for their families after the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order stopping the DAR and the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) from distributing the lands to farmers.
Based on the tally of the Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura, the tillage campaign has benefited 838 families or 1,676 people in the villages of Malapacsiao (244.5 ha), Asturias (209.93 ha), Bantog (258 ha), Cut-Cut (275.9 ha), Balite (153.4 ha), Mutrico (248 ha), Pando (163 ha), Texas (140 ha), Pasajes (60 ha) and Parang (51.5 ha).
Ulwu said no actual land distribution happened despite the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program because the Cojuangcos alloted shares to farmers in the company through the stock distribution option (SDO).
Rene Galang, Ulwu president, said farm workers received P9.50 daily during the planting and cropping months.
Defending their right to the land had cost them lives, he said. Seven farmers died in the confrontation of strikers, soldiers and policemen on Nov. 16, 2004. Three more leaders were killed through extrajudicial executions months later.
Canlas said the leases were made by former directors of Ulwu who lost in the election held before the 2004 joint strike with the Central Azucarera de Tarlac Labor Union.
“Among those who illegally leased the lands were personnel loyal to the Cojuangcos, farm workers who fought the strikers and supporters of village chiefs,” Canlas said.
Gregorio said the feud among leaders has not made it feasible to solve the problems at HLI. The Oct. 30 deadline, he said, would allow the farm workers to reap their crops and recover production expenses.
Galang called the deadline a “memorandum of death” and a “ploy to remove” the farmers from the vast property. He noted that it came a day after Congress approved Joint Resolution No. 1 that extended the CARP for six months without the compulsory acquisition scheme.
Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano said the PARC’s cancellation of the SDO in 2005 made the farm workers the “true owners of the lands.”