Farmers’ Group Slam Cojuangco Over Luisita Plan

A progressive party-list solon slammed the Cojuangco group of companies’ plan to donate 50 hectares of land in Hacienda Luisita to the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC), calling the move as “a plot to weaken and undermine farmers’ legitimate claim over the contested lands.”

Representative Rafael Mariano revealed in statement on Saturday that POC president Jose Cojuangco will donate part of the vast property owned by the Cojuangco family to serve as site for a National Training Center for athletes.

Mariano added that, according to POC spokesman Joey Romasanta, the 50 hectares of land will be under a 50-year lease at P1 a year.

“It is highly deplorable that the Cojuangcos are arbitrarily deciding on what to do with Hacienda Luisita. The lands belong to the farmers and farm workers long denied of their rightful claims over the lands. This move would pave the way for the massive conversion of lands in the Hacienda. In fact, they have already converted more than 500 hectares” said Mariano.

Mariano, who is the author of House Bill 3059 or the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill, stessed that the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) and Joint Resolution No. 1 passed by Congress in December last year triggered moves of big landowners to strengthen their grip over vast tracts of lands.

“The sham CARP that was further emasculated by Joint Resolution No. 1 reinforced moves by big landlords to keep their lands, like the Cojuangco’s Hacienda Luisita, away from actual distribution,” said Mariano.

In 1989, during former President Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino’s administration, 6,400 hectare Hacienda Luisita were placed under the CARP’s stock distribution option (SDO) scheme, instead of distributing the lands.

Mariano pointed out that under the CARP’s SDO, the Cojuangcos “have not only managed to evade their decades-old responsibility but have also gotten rid of all legal obstacles to their ownership of the hacienda.”

In December 2005, a year after the infamous Hacienda Luisita massacre, the Department of Agrarian Reform and the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council cancelled the SDO in Hacienda Luisita.

At present, farmers are cultivating more than 1,800 hectares of Hacienda Luisita with their crops mainly devoted to rice and vegetables. (pinoypress.net)