SC ruling puzzles Luisita workers

MANILA, Philippines—The leaders of the group of farm workers claiming ownership of the 6,500-hectare Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac—owned by the Cojuangco family of President Benigno Aquino III—are perplexed over why the Supreme Court has given priority to a labor question that had been settled four years ago.

Lito Bais, acting president of the United Luisita Workers Union (Ulwu), said the adjustments in the 13th month pay for more than 300 members of the Central Azucarera de Tarlac Labor Union (Catlu) were given in 2006, or two years after Catlu went on strike over a new collective bargaining agreement.

Bais said the high court should have acted instead on a long-pending petition from the Ulwu for it to revoke a restraining order it issued in 2005 against a decision by the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) placing 4,415 hectares of the estate under land reform.

The Supreme Court should have addressed the land conflict question first, he said.

“It is what they should be prioritizing,” said Bais.

The Supreme Court, in a July 26 decision, ruled against the Central Azucarera de Tarlac (CAT), a sugar refinery belonging to the Cojuangco group, in a case involving the claims of its employees against the company’s reduced computation of the 13th month pay.

The employees had won a favorable decision from the National Labor Relations Council (NLRC) in 2008, which was upheld by the Court of Appeals. The CAT management appealed the decision to the high court.

The CAT yesterday clarified that the high court decision on the 13th-month-pay deferential was a purely labor issue that involved the company which is entirely separate from the Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI).

“The Supreme Court decision is basically a settlement of a labor issue between the CAT and its labor union. It is in no way related to the pending petitions to nullify the stock distribution option (SDO),” said Joey Romasanta, CAT vice president for corporate affairs, in a statement.

He said the high court’s July 26 decision could be regarded as “moot and academic” as the CAT had already satisfied the 13th-month-pay differential being claimed by the workers. He said the CAT had paid about P6 million last January.

But farmers in the estate claimed to have started receiving the settlement money in 2006, even before the NLRC decided the case in 2008.

According to reports, the then Catlu president Ricardo Ramos distributed the money a week before he was killed in his house in a village inside the estate in 2006. The killing remains unsolved.

SDO scheme

Ulwu is the organization of farm workers, 5,700 of whom own 30 percent of the shares of stock in the HLI as beneficiaries of CARP.

The workers had agreed to a scheme called the stock distribution option (SDO), under which they received company shares instead of actual land distribution, starting in 1989.

The Ulwu, through the Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Loob ng Luisita, filed a case for the cancellation of the SDO, demanding that the sugar estate be redistributed in accordance with CARP.

After seven workers were killed in a confrontation with soldiers and policemen on Nov. 16, 2004, the PARC ordered the Department of Agrarian Reform to place 4,415 hectares of Hacienda Luisita under CARP coverage.

The HLI, however, succeeded in getting the Supreme Court to issue a restraining order in 2005.

Joseph Canlas, the chair of the Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Central Luzon, said he hoped that the high court would revoke the restraining order and decide in favor of the farm workers.

The high court has scheduled for Aug. 18 oral arguments on the case.

While the land conflict is awaiting resolution in the Supreme Court, farm workers have been cultivating rice, vegetables, corn and sugar in the estate without any resistance from the Cojuangco family, the estate’s owners.

Luisita ownership structure

President Aquino has a share in the estate through his mother, the late former President Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino.

But he is not a member of the executive committee of the Jose Cojuangco & Sons Inc. (JCSI), the Cojuangco family holding company, according to Romasanta, who is also the JSCI vice president for corporate affairs.

He said the President’s sister, Ballsy Cruz, represents the Aquino family in the committee.

The JCSI has among its subsidiaries the CAT and the Tarlac Development Corp. (Tadeco).

Tadeco owns 70 percent of the HLI. The remaining 30 percent of HLI is owned by the farmer beneficiaries of the CARP.

Romasanta stressed that the CAT, a publicly listed company which operates a sugar mill located in Tarlac, is separate and distinct from HLI.

He explained that the CAT mills sugarcane that come from other sugar planters in Central Luzon, not just from Hacienda Luisita. HLI is only one of CAT’s cane supply sources and regarded as just another planter, he said.

Good omen

Anakpawis party-list member Rafael Mariano said the Supreme Court decision on the 13th-pay issue was a “good omen” for the pending land distribution dispute.

“The decision has further highlighted how the Cojuangco family pulled a fast one on the mill workers just like they tried to do with the farm workers to evade land distribution,” said Mariano in a text message.

He expressed confidence that the magistrates would side with the farmers.

“Lifting the temporary restraining order on the distribution of Hacienda Luisita is long overdue. The justices cannot play deaf and blind,” said Mariano.

The militant Kilusang Mayo Uno labor group welcomed the high court’s decision on the 13th-month pay issue which it said was “one among the many acts of bad faith and injustice committed by the owners of Luisita.”

“The next step for the Supreme Court is to revoke the stock distribution option being implemented in Luisita. The inhumane wages being received by Luisita farmers is a direct result of this deceptive scheme,” Labog said. With Gil C. Cabacungan Jr. –Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon, Dona Pazzibugan, Philippine Daily Inquirer