Thursday, February 23, 2012
OVER 100 farmers trooped to the Supreme Court on Wednesday urging the justices not to bow down to pressure, if any, to reverse the decision favoring the distribution of the sprawling Hacienda Luisita, which is owned by relatives of President Benigno Aquino III.
For an hour, the farmers and their supporters maintained that Aquino is not committed to distribute the land even if he had given up his share in the Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI), the company that manages the nearly 5,000-hectare estate in Tarlac.
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"His (Aquino) deep resentment not only with the court (SC) but also to farm workers (is) written all over his putrid yellow rhetoric of accountability, transparency and respect of the law while at the same time hitting and neglecting the democratic rights of the people including the Hacienda Luisita farm workers to live with dignity," the Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (Ambala) said.
According to the decision last November 22, the HLI should pay the farmworkers P500 million it received from Luisita Realty Inc. for the sale of 200 hectares of land in 1996; P750 million for the sale of the Luisita Industrial Park; and P80,511,500 for the sale of the 80.51-hectare lot for the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX) road network.
The HLI filed a motion for reconsideration and clarification last December to settle the conflicting numbers as to the total number of farmers that will be given parcels of land and the process of compensation for HLI.
HLI spokesperson Antonio Ligon had said that at least 4,000 legitimate farmworkers were apparently excluded by the court decision, which listed 6,296 farm-worker beneficiaries.
A media report said Aquino's constant tirades against the High Court, especially on its Chief Justice, had cost them the hacienda.
Aquino, allegedly succumbing to family pressure, decided to fight back by aiming for Chief Justice Renato Corona's ouster and replace him with a magistrate who can push for the reversal.
"It's time to end Aquino's political charade; in the name of social justice let the High Court bestow the ultimate pledge for the farm workers decades-old struggle for land by handing down with finality the distribution of Hacienda Luisita," the farmworkers said.
Corona, currently under impeachment trial for various offenses at the Senate, earlier said that he was a stumbling block to an individual who wanted to stop the land distribution.
Although he refused to identify the person, the Chief Justice may have been referring to the President. (Sunnex)
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