Let us not be derailed - it is Hacienda Luisita!

FROM A DISTANCE

Let us not be derailed - it is Hacienda Luisita!

By Carmen N. Pedrosa

On Monday the impeachment hearing on Chief Justice Corona begins in the Senate. In a column on December 17, I wrote that Hacienda Luisita was the bone of contention in the conflict between President Aquino and CJ Renato Corona. It has not changed. In the days that followed we were treated with an avalanche of distractions — SALNs, condos, porkbarrel etc. etc. — to blur the essential conflict.

These distractions are effects, not the cause of the central problem in our country.

The problem is about the few against the many. The word for the few is the oligarchy to which President Aquino belongs.

* * *

If the Supreme Court upholds the recent decision on Hacienda Luisita we will be as close to a revolution without the pain and violence that some, out of despair, think is the only way to get out of the morass.

But how do we bring out this truth when it is being pushed out of sight. Always trying but not quite there because of this barrier, this inability to see that our nation will not shape up unless we confront that truth of a lopsided society where the country’s land and resources are for the few.

Neither is it down to fighting corruption in the past government as it has been made to appear by the Aquino government. There is corruption then and now. Unfortunately the accusations are down to personalities and not on a flawed system. The system favors the wealthy and powerful because they also hold the levers of government.

* * *

Hacienda Luisita is both a place, and a symbol. It is apiece of land with some 6,435-hectare sugar plantation estate located in Tarlac. It is owned by the Cojuangco family to which both the late former President Corazon Aquino and her son, incumbent President Benigno Aquino III belong. To get an idea of its vastness, here’s a description from Wikipedia: “It spans various municipalities in the province, including the capital Tarlac City. The hacienda is primarily within the province’s 1st and 2nd legislative districts. The estate is as large as the cities of Makatiand Pasig City combined.”

It has a long history dating back to the Spanish and American colonial periods. With the onset of the peasant (Hukbalahap) rebellion in the 1950s the Spanish owners were forced to sell Hacienda Luisita and the sugar mill Azucarera de Tarlac.

Ramon Magsaysay was then president of the Philippines. It is said that Magsaysay did not want it sold to the wealthy and powerful Lopez family of Iloilo. He preferred Jose Cojuangco, because of his son-in-law, Benigno Aquino Jr. who was his protégé. But Magsaysay died in a plane crash before the sale of the land could be consummated.

The sale of Hacienda Luisita to the Jose Cojuangcos was closed in 1958 when Carlos P. Garcia was president.

Although the José Cojuangcos were wealthy they did not have the dollars to pay the sellers. With the dollar control in force, they had to use influence in government to get dollars. They also got a loan from the Government Service Insurance System and adollar loan from the Manufacturers Trust Company of New York. The loans were guaranteed by the Central Bank of the Philippines under certain conditions.

* * *

President Aquino and CJ Renato Corona’s conflict is the struggle for ownership of Hacienda Luisita.

It is a symbol of land reform. As a symbol it should go beyond personal interests. And so should it be with all of us, most especially the senators on whom we look up to do the right thing for the sake of thecountry. On one hand you have a president whose family owns Hacienda Luisita, on the other you have a chief justice in whose wake the Hacienda Luisita is finally being given to the farmers. The big offence of Renato Corona is to be the chief justice at this time. It is unthinkable that the Cojuangcos should lose the land to the farmers when a Cojuangco is in power.

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Therefore the Aquino-Cojuangco government will fight to the hilt that the Supreme Court decision is not implemented.

Here is an FB posting from Pinoy radio in New York.

“Militant farmers in Hacienda Luisita asked theSupreme Court (SC) to void and dismiss Hacienda Luisita Inc.’s (HLI) motion for clarification and reconsideration filed last December.

Rodel Mesa, Unyon ng mga Manggagawa saAgrikultura secretary-general said the motion for clarification and reconsideration is merely a delaying tactic. The November 24 SC decision ordered thedistribution of Hacienda Luisita to the farmers.

“The SC has to give what is due the farm workers by immediately dismissing the said motion,” he said.

“What the court should do is nullify HLI’s Motion for Clarification and Reconsideration and at the same time mandate the Department of Agrarian Reform for the implementation of its decision to distribute Hacienda Luisita,” Mesa said.

The HLI motion puts the farm worker beneficiaries at a disadvantage by setting up legal obstacles of all sorts.

“The Cojuangco-Aquinos are obstructing the implementation of justice. If the court allows the beneficiaries to sell or use their land as collateral then the Cojuangco-Aquinos would be back in business paving the way for its re-consolidation.

“With the money being paid by the government to the President’s relatives for compensation, they are in avery sound position to buy back Hacienda Luisita ifthe ten-year moratorium prohibiting the beneficiaries to sell or serve their land as collateral will be carved out on the SC decision.”

Mesa said they should not allow President Aquino and his relatives to mock justice by opposing the unanimous and collective effort of the court.

“There is no reason in the world why they should not implement with finality the distribution of HaciendaLuisita by nullifying and dismissing HLI’s motion so that there will be no more room for President Aquino and his relatives to maneuver the decision.”

* * *

At stake in the Senate hearing is not only about Hacienda Luisita, the land but also Hacienda Luisita, the symbol.

The problem of what to do with Hacienda Luisita isthe principal issue, not the corruption of Corona that it is being made out to be. It should not be derailed.