Noynoy to discuss Luisita issue with relatives Tuesday
AMITA LEGASPI, GMANews.TV
11/16/2009 | 10:20 PM
Aware that the issue on Hacienda Luisita will hound his presidential bid next year, Senator Benigno “Noynoy" Aquino III on Monday said he would meet with his relatives to discuss the problem with the Cojuangco-owned property in Tarlac province.
Among those expected to attend the meeting, which Aquino said would be on Tuesday, are his maternal uncles Pedro and Peping Cojuangco. He said he would seek in the meeting the possible and workable options they have in solving the problem.
The 6,000-hectare Hacienda Luisita is divided among six Cojuangco siblings, according to Aquino. They control 70 percent of Hacienda Luisita Inc.’s shares of stocks.
“Ang interest ko dyan ay paano manumbalik yung pagkakataong magkahanapbuhay ang mga kababayan ko (I want to know how we’ll be able to secure jobs for my province-mates)," he said.
Aquino said the farmers remain his utmost concern despite the fact that his family was keeping a minority share of the hacienda and would not have much influence in the decision-making.
“May mungkahi na ilipat yung assets, pero pag nilipat yung assets, pati yung liabilities ng company mapupunta din sa beneficiaries ng lupa, so sila ang magso-shoulder. Pag ganun ang nangyari naiwan ba sa maayos na katayuan ang benefeciaries? Yan ang gusto kong ma-resolve before kami umalis," he said.
(There are proposals to transfer the assets to the beneficiaries, but if we do that, the company's liabilities will also be transferred to the beneficiaries and they will have to shoulder it. Is that fair for them? That's exactly what I want to resolve first.)
Earlier in the day, more than 200 workers and their supporters gathered in front of Gate 1 of the Central Azucerrera de Tarlac to call on the Cojuangcos, in particular to Noynoy, to distribute the Luisita sugar plantation to them.
Aquino had expressed his family’s readiness to divest their interest from the Hacienda Luisita. His mother, the late President Corazon Aquino, had divested ownership of the plantation when the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) was passed under her administration.
The remaining 30-percent HLI stock shares belongs to Luisita farm workers under the stock distribution option (SDO) of CARP, which President Aquino signed in 1988.
Agrarian reform advocacy groups however say that the SDOs have allowed Hacienda Luisita and other vast landholdings to skirt the law as they were exempted from the CARP land distribution coverage because SDOs functioned in lieu of turning parcels of land to the farmers. - GMANews.TV
Among those expected to attend the meeting, which Aquino said would be on Tuesday, are his maternal uncles Pedro and Peping Cojuangco. He said he would seek in the meeting the possible and workable options they have in solving the problem.
The 6,000-hectare Hacienda Luisita is divided among six Cojuangco siblings, according to Aquino. They control 70 percent of Hacienda Luisita Inc.’s shares of stocks.
“Ang interest ko dyan ay paano manumbalik yung pagkakataong magkahanapbuhay ang mga kababayan ko (I want to know how we’ll be able to secure jobs for my province-mates)," he said.
Aquino said the farmers remain his utmost concern despite the fact that his family was keeping a minority share of the hacienda and would not have much influence in the decision-making.
“May mungkahi na ilipat yung assets, pero pag nilipat yung assets, pati yung liabilities ng company mapupunta din sa beneficiaries ng lupa, so sila ang magso-shoulder. Pag ganun ang nangyari naiwan ba sa maayos na katayuan ang benefeciaries? Yan ang gusto kong ma-resolve before kami umalis," he said.
(There are proposals to transfer the assets to the beneficiaries, but if we do that, the company's liabilities will also be transferred to the beneficiaries and they will have to shoulder it. Is that fair for them? That's exactly what I want to resolve first.)
Earlier in the day, more than 200 workers and their supporters gathered in front of Gate 1 of the Central Azucerrera de Tarlac to call on the Cojuangcos, in particular to Noynoy, to distribute the Luisita sugar plantation to them.
Aquino had expressed his family’s readiness to divest their interest from the Hacienda Luisita. His mother, the late President Corazon Aquino, had divested ownership of the plantation when the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) was passed under her administration.
The remaining 30-percent HLI stock shares belongs to Luisita farm workers under the stock distribution option (SDO) of CARP, which President Aquino signed in 1988.
Agrarian reform advocacy groups however say that the SDOs have allowed Hacienda Luisita and other vast landholdings to skirt the law as they were exempted from the CARP land distribution coverage because SDOs functioned in lieu of turning parcels of land to the farmers. - GMANews.TV
