Justice delayed is justice denied, assuming you do get justice – specially with Hacienda Luisita. The progress of cases through the Philippine injustice system is counted in decades – glacial on the average. Unless of course someone is accused of collusion by the World Bank – then you have the entire Congress absolving everyone in less than a week. But if it’s a peasant – let them eat kamote while P.Noy goes target shooting and malling, or Kris is off to look for another man-whore, or while elder sisters sips an iced venti mocca latte with a double espresso.
‘I am too old to till the land’Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:50:00 08/09/2010Filed Under: Agrarian Reform, Agriculture, Senior Citizens
HACIENDA LUISITA, Tarlac City—Esperanza Dalapa, 82, of Barangay Parang (San Sebastian), said she chose the stock distribution option (SDO) because she could not work on the farm anymore. “I am too old to till the land,” she said.
Dalapa also said she needed the financial assistance that Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) promised to give farmer-beneficiaries.
Lawyer Vigor Mendoza, HLI vice president for external affairs, said even those who opted for land distribution would receive financial assistance from the company. He, however, did not give details on the financial package.
Angelita Mendoza, 61, of Barangay Luisita, said she signed in favor of land distribution because she needed land on which to plant camote (sweet potato) to feed her children and grandchildren.
“A small parcel will do,” she said. “My children and grandchildren need to eat. I have many children and grandchildren.”
She said the price of camote had gone up and the only way she could provide her kin with sweet potatoes was to grow them in a small plot.
Asked if she was giving rice to her children and grandchildren, she said: “We only use rice to make coffee. We roast the grains then we use the rice coffee to go with camote.” Reports from Russell Arador and Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon
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I am too old to till the land.
Hacienda Luisita – the Cojuangcos and Aquinos waited it out.
While I was getting old – they enjoyed the fruits of land which is meant to be mine.
Imagine this – I am receiving financial assistance from the proceeds of the use of the land which is meant to be mine. Isn’t this the ultimate in mockery?
And now I am made to appear grateful to the people who took my land, made money out of it, still don’t want to return it – then offer money from my land.
I am too old to remind the government that assistance should not only be financial, but also technical, marketing, and management assistance.
I am too old to ask our congressman to come up with the right law at the first time – I was still young when the CARP was passed. It took 20 years to come up with an extension. And how many more years for this run around from Hacienda Luisita.
I am too old, it’s tough to see six more years watching the grandson of the people who used the money from my land, and paying me with money made from using my land and calling it financial assistance.
I have been extending Hacienda Luisita financial assistance for generations. I have loaned Hacienda Luisita my land. I want my land back – including ALL THE MONIES MADE OUT OF MY LAND BEGINNING ON THE DAY YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO RETURN IT TO US.
I am already old but I still remember that the Luisita stock option plan had been denounced as “unconstitutional” by the University of the Philippines Law Center in a position paper submitted in June 1990 to the Senate Agrarian Reform Committee. The memorandum stated that the “scheme is violative not only of the social justice provisions but even more so of the specific provisions of the Constitution on agrarian reform” since it “allows the original owners to remain the controlling interest at the expense of the supposedly farmer beneficiaries.” It was unconstitutional then, it is still unconstitutional now.
There are thousands of us. This is so ridiculous. People just don’t get it.
What part of DISTRIBUTE ALL is hard to understand? Not stocks.. Not options.. But LAND.. DISTRIBUTE ALL OF IT.
I am too old. Justice delayed. Justice denied.
What else is new in my tang’nang lupang hinirang?
good news, she has a few years left to suffer. bad news, SDO is in effect in heaven, Tita Cory being president there.
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palebluedot Reply:
August 10th, 2010 at 12:00 am
…and u thought she’s in heaven with what she has done?
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NFA rice Reply:
August 10th, 2010 at 3:45 am
nag People Power sa alapaap. Bumakwet si Lord.
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Talk about lutong-makaw of an agreement-kuno.
There is no competition for the Hacienda Luisita property. The “bidding” is only between the farmers (who have the accounting and finance skills — yeah, right!!!) and the Cojuangcos (who stand for “…the greater good” — of course, they do!}
Erap Estrada-and-cronies can’t organize to bid for the land because HL has right of first refusal. Manny Villar can’t bid, too.
It has been reported that for past many years, HaciLuisita has netted zero-income. HL’s zero-income (which results in zip corporate taxes, zip dividends) may be because the business-model is lousy (But this doesn’t make sense since the Cojuangcos want to hang onto the business, right???). Or zero-income may mean that the business is being stripped with extraordinarily compensation packages for top employees. And who is to say that there are not many sweetheart deals that H/Luisita gave out to other entities (meaning businesses created by their kamag-anaks and cronies). Didn’t Noy get a “security guard” contract from Hacienda Luisita?
Stockholders don’t get to check the compensation packages or the sweetheart deals. The board-of-directors are supposed to do that. And HL board of directors, I think it is more believable to say that the board do not truly represent the stockholders more than they they represent the Cojuangcos.
No wonder Cory started to say “GMA Talsik Diyan!” when GMA administration said “the SDO deal was illegal and HacienLuisita should turn over the land to the farmers”. LABAN!
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What HL is really offering — hush money. The P150Million (divided proportionally to farmers based on SDO shares they own) is for hush money. Correctly, HL expects some farmers to accept SDO while others get land. The P150Million is HL paying farmers to shut-up on any plan that Hacienda Luisita proposes for any remaining land that HL gets to own. [If the proposal is detrimental to a farmer's access to water or to roads --- tough!!!] The P150Million is insurance by Hacienda Luisita in case DAR or Supreme Court wants HL to do better for the farmers.
The HL-offer is in the family of the Sulpicio offer to the MV Princess of Stars survivors. They who accept the insurance money promise not to argue anymore.
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The good thing about all this, finally, the entire issue is outed, where before, news about Hacienda Luisita were sparse and encountered only in passing, hardly drawing the interest of the public. If Noynoy Aquino did not run for President and win, it would have likely remained so. Now, after decades capitalizing on a so-called legacy of sainthood and heroism courtesy of Cory and Ninoy,(and only God knows how much goodwill flowed to their direction) you wonder how the borrowed image could hold with details of the Hacienda Luisita deal now being exposed little by little. Even the compromise deal being put forward bears the mark of overflowing arrogance, wiles, and greed. I mean, people naturally expect to see the stamp of the so-called Aquino Legacy somewhere.
Still, I think, for Noynoy, this is a great opportunity for greatness.
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By the time the farmer is too old to till, it’s hoped the children will carry on and claim what the parents (or grandparents) never got. Problem is, it’s hoped that the children don’t get swayed by local TV and begin to have the idea, “mag-artista nalang ako.” And this local TV is being churned out by friends of the oligarchs who are cheating them of their land.
Hmm, I smell a well-engineered plot there.