THE HACIENDA LUISITA CONTROVERSY (Noynoy saving his own mess)

Who else could better defend one’s controversies other than his very own family? Yes, a very typical Filipino culture of preserving familial relationship and family-ties but if it causes one to intimidate others and deprive them of their rights is another story. And Liberal Party (LP) standard bearer Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino is just so gullible of doing it, which for sure runs a total opposite to the “government reform” he has been offering the voting public.

And now the controversy over the Hacienda Luisita begins. Noynoy Aquino is simply living up to the standards of his clan, which normally includes “territorial protection” and “asset-clinging” with absolute abuse of authority. They remain defensive on the accounts of Luisita division as they intend to continue their control over the 4,000 hectare sugar farm land.

Just recently, Noynoy defended his cousin, Fernando Cojuangco, the chief operating officer of the holding company that owns the Luisita plantation from various criticisms here and there. Accordingly, he had publicly disproved and indicted the New York Times of misquoting his cousin saying that the Cojuangcos have no intention of giving-up Luisita. Isn’t this a very biased judgment over the issue? To note, Noynoy after acquiring power in the Congress, has been instrumental in the dismissal of the Luisita Farmer’s case and managed to keep silent over his clans’ affairs and the Tarlac farmers. This simply shows his disregard to the people’s (masses’) welfare and good governance- and the Luisita massacre in 2004 is enough proof of Noynoy’s political prejudice.

The Cojuangco clan, who owns and operates the Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) and the Central Azucarera de Tarlac (CAT), has legal obligations of distributing some 4,000 hectares to their tenants as stipulated under the former Department of Agrarian Reform’s (DAR) ruling. Accounts from the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) show that the late Don Jose Cojuangco loaned some US $2,128,480 from Central Bank of the Philippines (CBP) and Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) to purchase Luisita on March 31, 1958 and subsequently entered into an agreement to distribute some parts of the land to his tenants pursuant to the social justice program under the Marcos regime. However, Don Jose held back on his end of the agreement saying that there were no tenants inside Luisita. Ten years later, the public was surprised when CBP released an investigation which disproved Don Jose’s claim. Report on the conducted inquiry stated that there were about 100,000 residents in the 10 barrios making-up the entire hacienda; and that this overwhelming population is under Tadeco’s payroll.

On December 2, 1985, a court decision from the Manila RTC was out instructing the Cojuangcos to finally distribute the land to their tenants as stipulated in the 1958 agreement. But this wasn’t materialized when the Cory Aquino took power as president and implemented the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) which actually stalled the land-distribution by turning its farm workers into stockholders or co-owners of the azucarera turned corporation – Hacienda Luisita Inc. Instead of land, Cojuangco gave them shared capita, which now faces bankruptcy as stressed by Noynoy.

This is indeed an obvious and a glaring form of greedy governance. The Cojuangcos practically poked fun at and exploited the 1958 Agreement at the expense of the toiling farmers. If this is how Noynoy saves his own clan’s mess from the bulks of scams and fraud, then he may also have no remorse to subjugate the government with riddling political hoax that will ultimately lead Juan Dela Cruz to his own grave.