HACIENDA LUISITA REMAINS THORNY & THREAT-FILLED

HACIENDA LUISITA REMAINS THORNY & THREAT-FILLED

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Good day!

The thorny Hacienda Luisita, among the grand estates of the Cojuangco family, remains as threat-filled as ever. It is a showcase of a land reform executive decision that has gone haywire. The Supreme Court’s lackadaisical behavior shown with respect to this case has made the issue more murky.

The PH Supreme Court has earned the monicker of ‘hoodlums in robes’ in the 1990s. Have the noblesse Justices of the highest court remained as just as expected with regards to issues affecting the marginal sectors in particular? Hasn’t PH dropped off that ‘hoodlums’ image yet for the Justices of its highest court?

Below is a statement from the Hacienda Luisita Peasant Supporters Network Tarlac. It sums up the update on the thorny estate.

[Philippines, 06 July 2011]

Hacienda Luista Peasant Supporters Network Tarlac

SC Decision on Luisita Land Dispute: Legalizing the Theft of Farmworkers’ Lands

We, members of the Hacienda Luisita Peasant Supporters Network – a group of individuals and organizations supporting the farmers and farm workers of Hacienda Luisita – express our utmost outrage over decision of the Supreme Court to bring the case of the Hacienda Luista back to square one by ordering the Department of Agrarian Reform to conduct another referendum among farm worker-beneficiaries to choose between shares of stocks or land.

The Network believes that the High Court’s decision today is a setback for the Hacienda Luisita farmers’ struggle for land and justice. It subjects the longest-running land dispute in the country to a mere “popularity” vote instead of advancing what is right and just – that is, to install the legitimate farm worker beneficiaries to their land by freely distributing the Luisita lands to its rightful owners. This decision sets a bad precedent for all land disputes in the country – especially those involving the anti-farmer Stock Distribution Scheme currently in place in Hacienda Luisita.

The High Court’s decision is a bitter pill sugar-coated with nice-sounding phrases revoking the Stock Distribution Option to make it acceptable to the farmers workers but, in reality, retaining the corporate scheme which prevents the actual distribution of land to the farm workers.

For more than two decades, HLI has tried to manipulate the farm workers for years. They have already raked in multi-billion profits by selling and converting sizable portions of the land and by exploiting the labor of the farm workers. But the great strike of more than 5,000 farm workers in 2004 is testament that farm workers have already rejected this kind of arrangement. Furthermore, the success of the Bungkalan campaign where Hacienda Luisita farmers and their families collectively till the land for their benefit only shows that the farmers are capable of uplifting their condition without the onerous partnership with the Cojuangcos.

Also, we believe that the referendum is a tool for machinations and maneuverings of the Cojuangcos to retain their ownership and control over the sprawling hacienda. The compromise deal cooked up last August 2010 witnessed the excessive release of money, with the HLI dangling a P150-million financial assistance package to the farmers so that the latter would give up their claims to the land.

Finally, we call all peasant advocates, truth- and justice-loving Filipinos to join the mobilizations of the Hacienda Luisita farmers in the coming days expressing their disappointment and anger over the Supreme Court’s anti-farmer ruling.

LUISITA ESTATE, HACIENDAS: ANACHRONISM IN POST-INDUSTRIALIZING PHILIPPINES

Erle Frayne D. Argonza


Magandang araw! Good day!

It’s the 1st of July, the first day of official reporting by the newly elected political leaders of the country led by President Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III. Riding astride the air of optimism induced by the new leadership, let me say more notes then about my homeland.

Let me shift to landlordism as this phenomenon seems to have remained unscathed by the ‘scorched earth’ flames of modernization and post-industrial growth. Our newly elected president here, ‘Noynoy’ Aquino, is a scion of the oligarchic family of Cojuancos and is an heir to the 11,000-hectare Luisita Estate in Tarlac province.

I still recall that in the late 1990s, as a graduate student of development studies in De La Salle University-Manila, I underwent the course on constitutionalism and development. I tasked myself to review the constitutions of thirty-five (35) countries, with the aim of unearthing and extracting the theme of agrarian reform from them.

To my amazement, most of the countries I researched on, including Taiwan, Korea, and many developing states, clearly emblazoned in their national charter the theme of agrarian reform. The impeccable intention was to declare land reform as a determinative development policy. The landlords should be enticed to divest from their rural estates and channel their new investments to birthing strategic industries.

I did write a paper on the topic, which my professor, Dr. Wilfrido Villacorta (former undersecretary of ASEAN, delegate to the 1986 Constitutional Convention), appreciated very well. The research also enlightened me more about the urgency of decisively implementing agrarian reform in the Philippines that barely made it to the passing mark of successful land reform programs.

Almost a quarter of a century after the new charter was signed and ratified by our citizens, and after the consequent legislation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law, many large feudal estates still abound. They seem to remain untouched by the law, as if they are autonomous mini-states in a nation that is rapidly urbanizing along mixed industrial and service economy growth trajectory.

Let’s take the case of the Luisita estate. In 2006 yet, the Agrarian Reform department decided that a total of 6,453 of Luisita should be apportioned to the farmworkers. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court blocked the implementation of the decision as it issued a Temporary Restraining Order or TRO that stopped the implementation. A TRO should be in effect only for a maximum of 30 days, yet years have elapsed and it is still in place.

Other large estates are similarly situated as Luisita. For instance, there are the Yulo estate in Laguna and the Pedro Roxas estate in Batangas. I still recall that way back in 1998, I was among consultants who helped agrarian reform beneficiaries of a 500-hectare piece of Roxas estate (out of total 30,000 hectares) in their capacity-building and productivity boosting. The same beneficiaries asked me if I knew anybody from the Agoncillo clan that owned a total of 30,000 hectares of estates…

There are more such huge estates to count. And truly, I am overwhelmed by their gargantuan sizes that are enough to build huge mega-cities such as Singapore or Manila. I could almost puke at the mere mention of their names, and puke much more when I learn about their vast sizes and the slave-driving management styles of their owners that have led to appalling living conditions for the farmworkers.

RP’s population was 66% urban and 34% rural as of end of 2009. Urban population is moving up by 2% every year, while rural population is moving down by the same figure. By 2016, the next presidential election year, urban population will already be at least 80% urban and rural population down to 20%. What are haciendas for in an urban Philippines, one may ask.

Furthermore, RP’s labor force is now past 50% service sector and 15% industrial sector, with barely 34% left to fend for our farms and fisheries. Agriculture now contributes to merely 15% of the GDP, while services comprises a whopping 60% or so (the rest is industries). Tourism, which forms past 10% of GDP today, will most likely surpass agriculture as a contributor to national income by 2016.

Now that brings us back to the question: what are feudal estates doing in an urban-to-suburban Philippines with a rapidly post-industrializing economy? Strange anachronism! All we need to do is follow the footsteps of Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and China to realize that such estates must be released from feudal yokes so as to carve out a win-win growth path between the small planters and their former overlords-turned-entrepreneurs.

When I registered my vote for the ratification of the charter in 1986, I already made up my mind to see that all such estates be transformed to high productivity enclaves beginning with their subjection to the reform program. All the landlords should quickly divest from such landholdings and move their investments in industries and services.

I stand pat on that decision, and will be on standby to help out those agrarian beneficiaries who seek professional help for improving their farm production and quality of life. And I welcome a Philippines that will someday move towards the space age, thanks for a willful departure from an anachronistic feudalism of past dark ages.

[Philippines, 01 July 2010]

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COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
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