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DAR’s Terminal Report on Hacienda Luisita


According to the Terminal Report of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) on the Hacienda Luisita case, the DAR’s Task Force Luisita convened eight times between November 25, 2004 (nine days after the Luisita massacre) and February 22, 2005. Documents pertinent to Hacienda Luisita’s stock distribution option (SDO) were gathered and reviewed to evaluate the merits of the petition filed by Luisita farm workers on December 4, 2003 to have the hacienda’s SDO agreement revoked. On December 6, 2004, the management of Hacienda Luisita, Inc. (HLI) was asked to submit its response to the petition. HLI submitted its response on January 21, 2005. On March 15, 2005, the task force sent ten teams to Hacienda Luisita to conduct field investigations, ocular inspections, and focus group discussions with workers in the hacienda’s ten barangays, and gather information on the terms and conditions of their employment. The table below summarizes Hacienda Luisita, Inc’s (HLI) response to the major issues raised in the workers’ petition, and the DAR’s corresponding position after its investigation.

Task Force Luisita submitted the findings of its investigation on July 2005. These were reviewed by the DAR’s special legal team on August 2005. Task Force Luisita formally recommended the revocation of the stock distribution agreement in its Terminal Report dated September 22, 2005. In its report, Task Force Luisita said the SDO failed to fulfill the objectives of Section 2 of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law, which states that the country’s land reform program should promote social justice and improve the quality of life of farm workers through greater productivity of agricultural lands. According to the report, “the farm workers alleged that the quality of their lives has not improved. In fact, it even deteriorated, especially with the HLI Management declaration that the company has not gained profits in the last 15 years (since the SDO was implemented in 1989), that there could be no declaration and distribution of dividends." TRO from the Supreme Court After a number of hearings, the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) on December 23, 2005 issued a resolution ordering the revocation of Luisita’s SDO agreement and the distribution of the hacienda’s land to farmer beneficiaries. On January 3, 2006, HLI filed a motion for reconsideration appealing the PARC’s decision. On February 1, 2006, HLI also filed a petition for certiorari and prohibition with the Supreme Court to stop the enforcement of the PARC order. The PARC issued a resolution denying HLI’s motion for reconsideration on May 3, 2006. The Supreme Court then issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) on June 2006. Hearings were conducted with the parties involved in the Luisita case, but there has been no resolution as of press time, and the TRO remains in force. On April 23, 2010, protesters representing the United Luisita Workers' Union (ULWU), the Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA), the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), and the Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid ng Gitang Luzon (AMGL) marched to the Supreme Court and handed a letter to Chief Justice Reynato Puno asking the court to lift the TRO. "We appeal to our justices' sense of truth, justice, and accountability and their preferential bias for the landless, the exploited, and the oppressed," the letter said. – Stephanie Dychiu, with a report from Johanna Camille Sisante, GMANews.TV