The Supreme Court has ruled that Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac province must be redistributed among its eligible tenant farmers, bringing to closer conclusion a saga that has actually claimed lives, and that has tainted the legacy and one of the cornerstone programs of former president Corazon Aquino.
On November 16, 2004, decades-old unrest among farm workers of the Cojuangco-controlled hacienda turned bloody.
At the height of a farm workers’ strike, soldiers and policemen were deployed to the 6,453-hectare landholding. An armoured personnel carrier rammed through the farm workers’ picket line. Machines guns were fired into the crowd, while snipers opened fire atop the hacienda’s buildings.
When the strike was finally dispersed, seven people were killed and about 200 others were hurt.
It was the 16th year of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law when the massacre took place.
The law, signed by President Corazon Aquino in 1988, was among her 1986 presidential campaign promises to landless tillers. She had pledged that Hacienda Luisita, owned by her family, would be among the first landholdings to be distributed to farm workers.
"Land-to-the-tiller must become a reality, instead of an empty slogan," said Cory on January 16, 1986, during a campaign speech in Davao.
Then she added: "You will probably ask me – will I also apply it to my family’s Hacienda Luisita? My answer is, "yes.""
But in 1989, a year after the law took effect, Hacienda Luisita was exempted from being distributed to farm workers. It was instead placed under a stock distribution option scheme. After many years of being supposed co-owners of Luisita under the said scheme, the farmers remained poor and powerless.
Below are the raw video clips of the Hacienda Luisita massacre shared with InterAksyon.com by the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas and Tudla Productions.
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