If elected, Noynoy’s wishes will be followed, says Luisita spokesman

If Senator Benigno “Noynoy" Aquino III becomes president, Hacienda Luisita management will comply with whatever decision he makes regarding the Cojuangcos’ controversial sugar estate, a spokesman of Hacienda Luisita, Inc (HLI) told GMA News in an interview. And that includes Aquino’s cousin, Central Azucarera de Tarlac chief operations officer Fernando Cojuangco, who was recently quoted in the New York Times as opposing the distribution of Luisita’s land to farmers. “Magagarantiyahan natin kung palarin si Senator Noynoy, irerespeto at susundin hindi lang ng pamilya kundi dapat ng buong bayan," Atty. Antonio Ligon said when asked about the Cojuangco quote. “[Kahit] sinuman ang nahalal na pangulo, siya yung chief executive, tagapag-patupad ng batas."

(We can guarantee that if Sen. Noynoy wins, he will be respected and obeyed not only by his family but by the whole country. Whoever is elected president is the chief executive, enforcer of the law.) However, Ligon added, “But syempre, ang presumption natin ang pangulo hindi gagawa ng pasya na magba-violate ng existing laws, like the Corporation Code, and approved contracts between parties." (But of course, the presumption is that the president will not violate existing laws, like the Corporation Code, and approved contracts between parties.) Aquino had declared at the kick-off of his presidential campaign in Concepcion, Tarlac last February that Hacienda Luisita would be distributed to farm workers by 2014 after its debts were paid. In mid-March, the New York Times quoted Fernando Cojuangco, as saying “No, we’re not going to" when asked about giving up the family plantation and the sugar business. He is the son of Pedro Cojuangco, eldest sibling of former President Corazon Aquino. Senator Aquino suggested that his cousin had been misquoted, but New York Times Philippine correspondent Carlos Conde, who was present at the interview with Cojuangco along with New York Times Southeast Asia bureau chief Norimitsu Onishi, said the Times was standing by its story and could release the recording of the interview if Cojuangco wished. “Sinabi ni Atty. Fernando Cojuangco that he was taken out of context. I leave it at that," Ligon said in a wide-ranging interview with GMA News about Hacienda Luisita. Ligon explained that Cojuangco’s statement did not mean HLI was against what Aquino said. “[Hacienda Luisita] is [a corporation] created by the state. The franchise came from the state. Artificial lang yan, e. Susunod lang dapat yan sa kung anong gusto ng estado. And sa estado, ang chief executive, pangulo ng Pilipinas." ([HLI] is just artificial. It will follow whatever the state wants. In the state, that’s the chief executive is the president of the Philippines.) Asked if his statement that any steps taken with Hacienda Luisita should not go against existing laws and contracts meant that Aquino’s hands were already tied, Ligon said this may be true as far as Aquino’s ownership share of the hacienda was concerned, but whoever wins as president had the option of working with the legislature to update existing laws. “Kahit hindi pa si Noynoy yan o kahit iba pa yan, ‘pag ginawang ganito ang policy ng pamahalaan at nakipagtulungan ang bawat sangay, ang lehislatura . . . ‘pag sinabi naman ng judiciary tama yan, walang dahilan para hindi magawa ang bagay na yun," Ligon said. (Even if it’s not Noynoy or if it’s someone else, if the government creates a policy together with the legislature, if the judiciary says it is right, then there’s no reason why it can’t be done.) The fate of the Stock Distribution Option Ligon acknowledged that operations on Hacienda Luisita had frozen after the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC), the highest policymaking body of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), issued a decision in December 2005 revoking Hacienda Luisita’s stock distribution option (SDO) and ordering land distribution to farmer beneficiaries. HLI obtained a temporary restraining order (TRO) from the Supreme Court to prevent the PARC’s order from being enforced. Ligon argued that the Department of Agrarian Reform was not always right. “Kaya nga merong TRO sa Supreme Court. Hindi nangangahulugan na tama ang DAR. Ayoko rin sabihin na sinasabi ng Supreme Court ‘mali kayo’. Ang sinasabi lang ng Supreme Court, walang gagawin na revocation. Sixteen years, then suddenly, kukwestiyon mo ang SDO. So, ang remedyo mo, pupunta ka sa Korte Suprema. Huwag munang gumawa ng kung anumang hakbang." (That’s why the Supreme Court issued a TRO. The DAR is not necessarily right. I also don’t want to say that the Supreme Court is saying, ‘you’re wrong.’ What the Supreme Court is saying is, don’t do any revocation . Sixteen years, then suddenly you’re questioning the SDO. So the remedy is you go to the Supreme Court. Don’t take any actions yet.) Hacienda Luisita workers who filed the petition to revoke the SDO with the DAR have a pending motion at the Supreme Court to have the temporary restraining order lifted. The condition to distribute Hacienda Luisita’s land that was tacked on to the government loans given to Jose Cojuangco, Sr. in 1957 was unenforceable because there were no tenants on the hacienda, Ligon said, reiterating the Cojuangco family’s four-decade-old stand. “Sa kadahilanang walang tenants sa Hacienda Luisita, kundi farm workers, hindi na kailangang sundin o ipatupad yung kundisyon na yun," he said. “A tenant occupies and tills a definite portion of the agricultural land. Yung tenant, nandun sa lupain, naka-pirmi siya, siya yung nagbubungkal. Yung farm worker, nagtatrabaho siya sa kahit anong parte ng propiedad. Puwede siyang naglinis dito. Puwede siyang naghukay dito." (Since there were no tenants on Hacienda Luisita, only farm workers, there was no need to fulfill that condition. A tenant occupies and tills a definite portion of the agricultural land. The tenant occupies the land and he tills it. The farm worker works on any part of the property. He can clean here, he can dig there.) Ligon stressed that it was during the term of former President Corazon Aquino, Sen. Aquino’s mother, that land reform encompassed all agricultural lands, not just the rice and corn lands covered by Presidential Decree No. 27 of former President Ferdinand Marcos. On July 22, 1987, six months after protesters marching towards Malacañang demanding land reform were killed during a violent police dispersal on Mendiola, Aquino issued Presidential Proclamation 131 and Executive Order No. 229 outlining her land reform program, expanding the coverage of land reform to include sugar and coconut lands. “The late president did something which her predecessors were not able to do," Ligon said. “At the height ng Martial Law, dapat nagawa ni President Marcos na ibigay lahat ng land to be distributed, kahit hindi rice and corn. Sugar, everything. Hindi, di ba? Very powerful si President Marcos, PD 27. Yung kay Cory, comprehensive." (At the height of Martial Law, President Marcos should have given out all land to be distributed, even if it wasn’t rice or corn. Sugar, everything, right? President Marcos was very powerful, PD 27. Cory’s law was comprehensive.) President Aquino’s land reform program included an option for corporate landownership, under which stocks could be distributed in lieu of land (Section 10, EO 229). When the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (Republic Act 6657) was passed, it also included a provision for the stock distribution option (SDO). Hacienda Luisita was placed under SDO. Ligon said this did not mean Hacienda Luisita was exempted from land reform. “Hindi na-exempt ang Hacienda Luisita sa comprehensive agrarian reform (Hacienda Luisita was not exempted from comprehensive agrarian reform). It was in effect for 16 years." Ligon said the SDO benefited the farm workers of the hacienda. “Naging maganda ang kalagayan ng farmers. Dahil kung diretsong pinamigay mo sa kanila ang lupa, e baka ngayon wala na silang pag-aari, wala pa silang bahay, yung mga nakuha nilang benepisyo hindi pa nila nakuha." (The conditions of the farmers improved. If you gave them the land, maybe now they wouldn’t have it anymore, they wouldn’t have housing or any of the other benefits they received.) Ligon said it was the farm workers themselves who chose the SDO. On May 9, 1989 and October 14, 1989, Luisita’s farm workers were asked to choose between stocks or land. The SDO won 92.9% of the vote in the first referendum, then won 96.75% of the vote in the second referendum. “Sino ang nag-desisyon na mag-SDO tayo? Ang mga farm workers," Ligon said. (Who decided on the SDO? The farm workers.) Asked why the stocks representing the farm workers’ 33% share in HLI were not transferred to them in full in 1989 but were placed on a 30-year staggered distribution scheme, while DAR guidelines stated that stocks should be transferred to beneficiaries within 60 days after implementation of the SDO, Ligon said, “Moot and academic na natin pag-usapan ang 30 years kasi nga hindi na naintay ang 30 years," referring to HLI’s move in 2005, the SDO’s sixteenth year, to accelerate the distribution of all remaining stocks. (It’s moot and academic to talk about the 30 years because we did not wait anymore for 30 years.) The move to accelerate the distribution of stock was not done simply because there was a workers’ strike, Ligon said. “It was really intended na mai-distribute kaagad. In fact, ang very best manifestation niyan, when Hacienda Luisita already allowed the poor farm-worker beneficiaries to sit on the board and decide. Kaya lahat ng nangyayari, kasama yung apat na tinig nung magsasaka." (It was really intended to distribute the stock right away. In fact, the best manifestation of that was when Hacienda Luisita allowed the poor farm-worker beneficiaries to sit on the board and decide. So in everything that has happened, the voices of the four farmers [on the board] were heard.) As for the valuation of assets that gave the Cojuangcos majority 67% control of Hacienda Luisita under the SDO, Ligon said the Cojuangcos were not the ones who did the valuation. The exclusion from the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) of about 1,527 hectares out of Hacienda Luisita’s total 6,443 hectares in 1989 was one of the reasons cited by critics of the SDO for the minority 33% share the farm workers received in the corporation. The 1,527 hectares were considered non-agricultural. The remaining 4,915.75 hectares that were subjected to CARP were valued at P40,000 per hectare by Asian Appraisal and the Securities and Exchange Commission. “Land Bank ang nag-value, with Asian Appraisal," Ligon said. “Walang control sa pag-value ang mga Cojuangco diyan." (Land Bank did the valuation, with Asian Appraisal. The Cojuangcos had no control over that.) Regarding the eight separate murders of persons linked to the protests at the hacienda in the months that followed the November 16, 2004 Luisita massacre, Ligon said he preferred not to comment because the matter was best left to the authorities. “Kung anuman ang mga nangyayari, nagkakaroon ng imbestigasyon ang ating mga ahensya. Hindi lang kapulisan. Ang legislative department, nagkakaroon yan. Wala namang sinasabi na yan dahil sympathizer sila. Walang ganung report," he said. (Whatever happened, government agencies investigate, not just the police. Even the legislature. No one is saying these things happened because they were sympathizers. There’s no such report.) The ‘challenge to Sen. Aquino’ The Stock Distribution Option (SDO) has long been a contentious issue for agrarian reform advocates. According to Atty. Jobert Pahilga, counsel for the farm workers who filed the petition to have Hacienda Luisita’s SDO revoked, the SDO in the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law was purposely designed to benefit Hacienda Luisita and other big landowners. “Kung kinonsider talaga nila na bibigyan ang mga magsasaka ng control doon sa resources at sa lupa, dapat binigyan sila ng kalayaan na bungkalin ang lupa at kung ano ang gusto nilang gawin doon," he said. “Hindi na i-subject pa sila sa isang agreement na kung saan kailangan ang approval ng landowner. Kasi sa stock distribution option, korporasyon ang nagde-decide through its board of directors. Matatalo talaga ang mga magsasaka. Ang representasyon ng mga magsasaka sa board ng Hacienda Luisita is only 4 out of 11 seats. The rest is from management." (If they really considered giving the farmers control over the resources, the farmers should have been given the freedom to till the land and do whatever they want there. They should not have been subjected to an agreement where the approval of the landowner is needed. In the stock distribution option, the corporation decides through its board of directors. The farmers are sure to lose. The farmers’ representation on the board of Hacienda Luisita is only 4 out of 11 seats. The rest is from management.) Pahilga said the claim that there were no tenants in the hacienda had long been rendered moot by the decision of the Manila Regional Trial Court in 1985 ordering the surrender of the hacienda so the terms of Jose Cojuangco, Sr.’s government loans from 1957 could be enforced. The 1985 decision was issued with unusual speed around the same time Cory Aquino filed her certificate of candidacy to run for president against Ferdinand Marcos. The Cojuangcos elevated the case to the Court of Appeals, and the case was withdrawn in 1988 by the Philippine government under Cory Aquino after Marcos had been ousted. The Central Bank did not object to the withdrawal of the case on the condition that “the distribution of Hacienda Luisita to small farmers would be achieved under the comprehensive agrarian reform program." Hacienda Luisita was then subjected to CARP under the SDO provision in 1989. Pahilga denied that the SDO had improved the farm workers’ lives. “Dapat noong pinirmahan ang stock distribution agreement ng Hacienda Luisita, binigay na sa magsasaka ang shares of stock corresponding to the value of the land." (When the stock distribution agreement of Hacienda Luisita was signed, the farmers should have been given the shares of stock corresponding to the value of the land.) Instead, he said, the farm workers were forced to work for the stocks for 30 years. The 30 years were cut short when HLI accelerated the distribution of stocks in 2005, the SDO’s sixteenth year. Pahilga said the acceleration of the distribution of stock after the petition for the revocation of the SDO had already been filed was an “afterthought" to cure a defect in HLI’s compliance with the SDO’s implementation that was one of the grounds for the DAR’s recommendation to revoke the SDO. Regarding the valuation of the hacienda’s 4,915.75 hectares of land at P40,000 per hectare during the Aquino administration in 1989, which was the basis for the 33% share given to the farm workers in HLI as against the Cojuangcos’ 67%, Pahilga said the figure was obviously unfair. “The land should have been given a higher value, because in 1995, 500 out of the 4,915.75 hectares of Hacienda Luisita were sold for P1.25 billion, or P2.5 million per hectare," he said. “In a span of six years, the increase in the value of the land was so big, from P40,000 to P2.5 million. That means in 1989, the value of the land was purposely lowered to lower the equity of the farm workers in the corporation." Pahilga said HLI’s debts cannot be used as a reason to withhold the land from the farm workers because it was HLI management that incurred these debts. The challenge to Senator Noynoy Aquino, Pahilga said, was to talk to his family to withdraw their petition for certiorari in the Supreme Court so land could be distributed by the DAR to the farm-worker beneficiaries. “How can Noynoy present himself as the savior of the nation, if in his own backyard, he cannot resolve the issues of Hacienda Luisita?" Pahilga said. Aquino’s handling of the issue, he added, was a reflection of his political will. HLI spokesman Ligon gave assurances that his company and the family that owns it will follow whatever Sen. Aquino decides if he is elected, under the presumption that any decision made “will not violate approved contracts between parties." – with reports by Sandra Aguinaldo, Stephanie Dychiu, and Howie Severino, GMANews.TV