Hacienda Luisita tenant-farmers can stay until November 15

MANILA, Nov 1 (PNA) -- Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) on Friday said they are giving the 1,500 farmer-tenants until November 15 to stay inside a portion of its sugar estate belonging to the Cojuangco family in Concepcion, Tarlac after its eviction order had lapsed.

Reports reaching Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Quezon City said the farmer-tenants have a deadline to stay until October 30 but was extended November 15.

Tony Ligon, HLI spokesperson, told the Philippines News Agency (PNA) the management is giving the farmers 15 days to occupy a 6,453-hectare property rendered idle by a labor dispute and agrarian case pending in the Supreme Court and DAR.

Ligon said the Cojuangco-owned corporation extended its December 18, 2008 memorandum order to give farmers ample time to stay, and coordinate and register with a committee it created to “preserve the tone of peace, harmony and unity in HLI.”

Jose Romasanta, a close-in aide and former spokesman of former Philippine Olympics Commission (POC) Chair Jose “Peping” Cojuangco who lived at Hacienda Luisita for almost two decades, clarified the order was an initiative of the Cojuangco clan, and not of the DAR.

“Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman has nothing to do with the management decision,” Romasanta said in a telephone interview.

In 2008, HLI assistant manager Herman Gregorio Jr. issued a memorandum to more than 500 farmer-families belonging to the Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon. The order fueled objection from AMGL and the United Luisita Workers Union.

Romasanta said HLI management issued the notice to “put order in the place,” adding legitimate farmer-beneficiaries under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) were being overtaken by questionable groups of beneficiaries.

“Even a portion of the land was devoted to a watermelon plantation leased to Taiwanese business operators,” he said.

In 2004, a labor dispute erupted leading to a spate of strike at the Hacienda Luisita.

A year later, the Presidential Agrarian Reform Committee (PARC), the highest policy-making body on agrarian reform, voted the revocation of the questionable stock distribution option of the management.