House asked to reopen probe of 2005 Luisita case

VICTIMS SAY NOYNOY’S SECURITY AIDE HAD SHOT THEM

Workers of Hacienda Luisita are seeking the reopening of the House of Representatives’ investigation into the frustrated murder case of three farm hands of the sprawling Tarlac estate after the victims’ co-workers yesterday said they were willing to testify that it was a security aide of Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III who had shot them at the gate of the disputed farmland.

This even as Senior Deputy Minority Leader and Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo said he will support the farm workers in their bid to get justice for the incident which happened more than four years ago.

At a press conference held at the Serye Restaurant in Quezon City, officers of the Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon (AMGL), Kilusang Magbubid ng Pilipinas-Central Luzon (KMP-CL) and the United Luisita Workers’ Union (ULWU) accused Aquino, the presumptive presidential bet of the Liberal Party (LP) in the elections next year, of insincerity and engaging in the issue of the 15,000-hectare farmland, saying the son of the late President Corazon “Cory” Aquino had done nothing to resolve the matter and was even present when one of his security aides shot George Loveland, Ernesto Ramos and Malou Ricardo at the west gate of the hacienda on Jan. 5, 2005.

According to Joseph Canlas, chairman of AMGL, and Willy Marbella, deputy secretary general of KMP-CL, on that day, Loveland, Ramos and Ricardo were manning the west gate leading to the hacienda when Aquino, aboard his Nissan Patrol sport utility vehicle along with his security aides, passed through their picket line.

“Since they have to pass through our picket line going inside the hacienda, the Nissan Patarol had to pass through a checkpoint manned by Loveland, Ramos and Ricardo, and we saw Sen. Aquino inside the vehicle,” Canlas recalled. He said the Nissan Patrol is also known to the workers as one of the service vehicles of Aquino, who was still a congressman then.

After a few minutes, Canlas said the same vehicle went out of the gate and after passing through the picket line, one of Aquino’s security aide alighted from the car and approached Loveland and his group while holding a .45 caliber pistol in his hand.

“What is it that you want to happen? Why are you blocking our car?” the security aide said in the vernacular, Canlas alleged.

He said the unnamed security aide then shot Ramos point blank, hitting him in the right side of his body and then turned on Loveland and Ricardo and also shot them before going back to the car which went inside the property.

Ocampo said he will talk to the farm workers and ask them if they are willing to issue a sworn affidavit and file it in court or in the House.

“They could make their statements official through a sworn affidavit which we could file with the proper court or even here at the lower House,” he said.

Ocampo, along with Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teodoro “Teddy” Casiño, former Bayan Muna Rep. Joel Virador, Gabriela women’s party-list group Rep. Liza Maza, Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano and the late Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Belran, had filed Resolution 583 during the 13th Congress, seeking an investigation into the shooting of Loveland and his group.

Such a violent incident is not an isolated case as several other cases of “harassment” allegedly staged by the estate’s armed guards, with picketing farm workers being shot and killed, has happened in the past.

These incidents stem from the dispute the farmers and the management of the hacienda have been locked on over the right to own the land after a court had ruled for the 15,000-hectare estate to be distributed to the workers in line with a law – the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program – that was ironically laid down during the term of President Aquino.

The owners of the Hacienda Luisita, the Cojuangco family, of which Cory Aquino is a member, has been making every effort to legally stall their compliance with the court ruling.

Meanwhile, the farmers also scored Noynoy for promising to resolve the land dispute once he is elected President next year.

In one of his recent speeches, the senator had promised to abide by the court ruling and distribute the lands in Hacienda Luisita to the farm workers if he wins the presidency.

“Sen. Aquino does not have to wait for him to win the presidential elections next year. All he has to do is withdraw their (Cojuangcos) petition for certiorari before the Supreme Court so that the distribution of the land can proceed,” lawyer Robert Pahilga, who represents the farmers in the land case, said.

“Sen. Aquino’s statement to the media is contradicting what he had said earlier when he claimed he could not do anything about the Hacienda Luisita issue as he is only a minority stockholder in the corporation,” Lito Baez, chairman of ULWU, added.

“The issue of Hacienda Luisita, which had claimed the lives of man of its farm workers, will be a thorn in Sen. Aquino’s quest for the presidency. How could we entrust the fate of the whole nation to him when he cannot even resolve a relatively small problem compared to that of the whole country?” Baez said. –Charlie V. Manalo, Daily Tribune