Palace to DAR: Settle Hacienda Luisita dispute
11/17/2009 | 05:54 PM
Malacañang has stepped into the dispute between farmers in the Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac province and the Cojuangco clan, who owns the 6,000-hectare property.
Press Secretary Cerge Remonde on Tuesday said they would direct Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman to act on the plight of the farmers who are seeking ownership of the land under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
“We will direct the DAR to act with dispatch on the disposition of this case," he said.
The official also urged the Luisita farmers and the members of the Aquino and Cojuangco families to work with DAR in resolving the conflict.
“We also appeal to all concerned including the Aquino and the Cojuangco families and of course also the complainants of this case too to fully cooperate with the DAR in the immediate resolution of this case for the good of all the concerned and justice to all," he said.
On Monday, 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 Senator Benigno “Noynoy" Aquino III, to distribute the Luisita sugar plantation to them.
Aquino, whose clan controls 70 percent of Hacienda Luisita Inc.’s shares of stocks, 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
Press Secretary Cerge Remonde on Tuesday said they would direct Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman to act on the plight of the farmers who are seeking ownership of the land under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
“We will direct the DAR to act with dispatch on the disposition of this case," he said.
The official also urged the Luisita farmers and the members of the Aquino and Cojuangco families to work with DAR in resolving the conflict.
“We also appeal to all concerned including the Aquino and the Cojuangco families and of course also the complainants of this case too to fully cooperate with the DAR in the immediate resolution of this case for the good of all the concerned and justice to all," he said.
On Monday, 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 Senator Benigno “Noynoy" Aquino III, to distribute the Luisita sugar plantation to them.
Aquino, whose clan controls 70 percent of Hacienda Luisita Inc.’s shares of stocks, 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
