HLI asks Supreme Court to approve Luisita agreement

Representatives of the Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to approve the controversial compromise agreement the corporation reached with thousands of farmer-beneficiaries that aims to end the two-decade land dispute. The agreement, forged last Friday, is considered as a breakthrough on the land issue that has dogged the family of President Benigno “Noynoy" Aquino III. “It is respectfully prayed that the compromise agreement be approved and judgment rendered in accordance therewith," a portion of the HLI’s joint submission and motion for approval read. Under the agreement, farmers are given the option to retain their stocks in the sugar plantation, or to get their share of land from 1,400 hectares out of the 6,453-hectare Cojuangco-owned estate in Tarlac province. HLI reported that about 70 percent of some 10,502 farmer-beneficiaries have chosen to keep their stocks in the corporation instead of getting land. HLI spokesman Tony Ligon said the farmers were not coerced into choosing the Stock Distribution Option (SDO) scheme. The agreement allows the farmer-beneficiaries who will opt for land distribution to keep monetary and non-monetary benefits, such as the home lots and production shares given to them under the SDO agreement. All the farmer-beneficiaries are also entitled to P150 million in “financial assistance" from the HLI in settlement of all claims — P20 million of which will be given upon signing of the agreement as a sign of “good will." The remaining P130 million will be given to the farmers if and when the agreement is approved by the Supreme Court. The agreement has sparked criticisms — primarily from other members of Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid ng Hacienda Luisita (AMBALA) and the United Luisita Workers' Union (ULWU), the two farmers' groups that accepted the agreement with HLI — that it will only result in more injustice for the farmers and that the HLI only wants to tighten its hold on the land. 2-decade land dispute The Hacienda Luisita sugar estate is owned by the Cojuangcos, the family of President Aquino’s mother, the late President Corazon Aquino. In 1989, the SDO was implemented to give farmer-tenants the option to get shares of stocks from the proceeds of the sugarcane plantation. Under this scheme, each of the farmer-tenants received certificates of stocks from HLI instead of land for them to till. But in 2005 under the Arroyo administration, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the Presidential Agrarian Reform Commission (PARC) issued a resolution ordering the cancellation of the SDO scheme on the premise that it made farmers’ lives worse. It also ordered the distribution of some 4,915 hectares of land covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). To prevent the DAR and PARC from enforcing the resolution, HLI asked the Supreme Court to issue a temporary restraining order, which the court granted in 2006. Despite the agreement, the SC will hold its oral arguments — the first since the TRO was issued — on August 18. Ligon on Wednesday refused to answer the question of whether HLI was asking the SC to dismiss the case it filed before the court four years ago. “Let us respect the court. Let us not be speculative," he said. Farmers' groups to question deal HLI’s move to ask the court to admit the controversial deal was made amid criticisms from peasant groups and even from Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo, head of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines' National Secretariat for Social Action. Pabillo asked President Aquino to pressure his family to “give what is due" to farmers under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. The prelate was one of the advocates of the extension of the CARP, which in 2009 was allowed to be implemented for another five years. Malacañang has taken a hands-off stance on the sticky Hacienda Luisita issue that had hounded President Aquino even during the campaign for the May 10 elections. Splinter groups of AMBALA and ULWU plan to question the deal before the court as well. “We were not given a copy of what HLI filed. Immediately, we will answer what they filed once we get a copy," said AMBALA legal counsel Jobert Pahilga. - KBK, GMANews.TV