Government wants Luisita distributed to tenants

MANILA, Philippines – The government is standing by its order in 2005 for the distribution of land, not shares of stocks, to farmer-beneficiaries of Hacienda Luisita, the sugar estate owned by President Aquino’s family in Tarlac.

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) have asked the Supreme Court (SC) to order the distribution of 4,915.75 hectares of sugarland to 6,296 original farmer-beneficiaries.

Through the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), DAR and PARC also urged the court to junk the stock distribution option for farmers, through a partial reconsideration of its ruling last July 5 that gave farmers a choice between land and stock options.

In a 44-page motion, the OSG said the court erred in applying the doctrine of “operative fact” to the case.

“There is no law or rule which has been invalidated on the ground of unconstitutionality. And the doctrine is a rule of equity which may be applied only in the absence of a law. In this case, there is a positive law which mandates the distribution of the land as a result of the revocation of the stock distribution plan,” argued Solicitor General Joel Cadiz, citing Republic Act 6657 or the Agrarian Reform Law of 1988.

The DAR and PARC also agreed with the dissenting opinion of Chief Justice Renato Corona that Section 31 of RA 6657, which allowed stock distribution, violated Section 4, Article XIII of the Constitution.

Lastly, the government argued that the high court might have overlooked some “problematic issues,” including the number of qualified farm-worker beneficiaries at 6,296.

“An initial study of the 1989 list seems to indicate, however, that there are several persons who are listed therein more than once. As such, it is entirely possible that the actual FWBs of HLI (Hacienda Luisita Inc.)back in 1989 (are) actually less than 6,296. If this is the case, then the number of shares and area size per FWB will necessarily change,” it said. FWB refers to farm-worker beneficiaries.

It added that the SC also erred in coming up with 0.6885 hectares as the size of the landholding each farmer who decides to have land will get, and fixing to 18,804.32 the number of shares guaranteed each of the qualified beneficiaries who will vote to stay as HLI stockholders.

The OSG also said that if all 6,296 farm-worker beneficiaries choose land, there will be a deficit of 0.5004 hectare.

“As to the formula used by the Honorable Court for land distribution, it should be pointed out that if all the FWBs opt for land distribution, there will be a deficit of 0.5004 hectare. In such scenario, there are 6,296 FWBs, each to be given 0.68865 hectare and the total area should be awarded is 4,335.7404.

“However, the area size distributable to FWBs is only 4,335.24 hectares (4,915.75 hectares minus 50 hectares + 80.51 hectares) or 0.5004 hectare less than the supposed area to be distributed. Imposing the formula in the decision clearly creates an unfair situation for the FWBs,” it added.

The motion for partial reconsideration was filed on Friday afternoon.

Two groups of farmers – Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Hacienda Luisita (Ambala) and Farmworkers Agrarian Reform Movement (FARM) – have also appealed the SC ruling and cited the same grounds raised by DAR and PARC.

They argued that “land-to-the tiller and control over the land (‘control test’) are provided under Section 4, Article XIII of the Constitution and the intents of its framers.”

They also reiterated their argument that the Luisita Industrial Park Corp. and Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. were not innocent purchasers for value in the instant case.

Six justices comprised the majority vote of the high court and agreed to the conduct of another referendum among farmers: Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr., Teresita Leonardo de Castro, Lucas Bersamin, Mariano Del Castillo, Jose Perez and Roberto Abad.

Four others – Associate Justices Arturo Brion, Martin Villarama Jr., Jose Catral Mendoza, and Maria Lourdes Sereno – dissented as they believe that the contested land should be placed under the coverage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) with its landholdings distributed directly to the farmers.

Corona submitted a separate opinion saying Section 31 of RA 6657 was unconstitutional in the first place.

Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio inhibited from the case while Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta was on official leave during the voting.

SONA rally

Meantime, Hacienda Luisita farm workers will join the “People’s State of the Nation Address” outside Congress today to challenge President Aquino to talk about genuine and realistic land reform.

“Hacienda Luisita farm workers and the Filipino peasantry are very eager to know if, after more than a year in office, Aquino already has a concrete plan to address the plight of farmers, particularly on the question of agrarian reform and agriculture,” Kiluang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) secretary-general Danilo Ramos said yesterday.

“We challenge Aquino to talk about Hacienda Luisita, take up land reform, and not another fairy tale from wonderland. We expect Aquino to cloak the real state of the nation with empty rhetoric but he can never hide the fact that in his family’s backyard, inequality and injustice exists and worsened under his administration,” he added.

Presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte earlier said the President “will also discuss where he wants to take us in a year’s time.”

Ramos, in reaction, said, “Hacienda Luisita will take center stage during the People’s SONA outside Congress because it symbolizes land monopoly, failure of CARP, and agrarian unrest.”

“Hacienda Luisita is the testament of landlessness, poverty, hunger, social injustice, oppression and deception in the country. Every Luisita farmer is an epitome of the real state of the nation,” he said.

The KMP leader also said, “The Cojuangco-Aquinos, the President’s family’s continuing stranglehold of Hacienda Luisita shows the administration’s weak leadership, ineptitude, and lack of political will.”

Around 200 farmers from Hacienda Luisita are now camped in front of the DAR in Quezon City and will be joined by thousands of farmers from Central Luzon led by the Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid ng Gitnang Luzon and KMP’s chapters in Rizal province.

The farmers plan to march to the Batasan Complex in Quezon City where they will be joined by various sectoral groups under the umbrella organization Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan).

Quezon City Police District director Chief Superintendent George Regis assured rallyists that maximum tolerance will be observed but they will not be allowed to go beyond the St. Peter’s Church along Commonwealth Avenue. –Edu Punay (The Philippine Star) with Michael Punongbayan