Advocates form ‘Luisita Watch’ to highlight troubles in Cojuangco plantation

By: InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/81155/advocates-form-luisita-watch-to-highlight-troubles-on-cojuangco-plantation
MANILA, Philippines — Organizations and individuals advocating genuine land reform on Thursday formed the “Luisita Watch” network to support the struggle of farmers and agrarian reform beneficiaries in the vast Tarlac sugar estate owned by the Cojuangco family, to which President Benigno Aquino III belongs, amid renewed tensions there.

Among those who signed up with Luisita Watch at its launching at the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication in Diliman, Quezon City, were actress Angeli Bayani and Cine Filipino best actor Karl Medina.

A statement released by the network warned that, “if real land distribution is not immediately carried out and if terror continues to reign in the area, we just might see a situation not unlike the one which led to the tragic Hacienda Luisita Massacre of 2004.”

Farmers in Hacienda Luisita have accused the Tarlac Development Corporation of trying to wrest away some 400 hectares from them, destroying their farms and structures in preparation for a commercial project.

Luisita Watch claimed the government was “being grossly complicit with the Cojuangco-Aquino clan’s aggressive efforts to retain control of Hacienda Luisita.”

It also worried that the Supreme Court decision upholding the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 might limit their use of the Internet, which Christopher Garcia, spokesman of the Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita, called the “only consistent medium in the last couple of years through which the travails of the Luisita farm workers with deception and terror have been heard.”

Other members of Luisita Watch are Rafael Mariano of Paeng Mariano of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, former Gabriela Women’s Party Representative Liza Maza, Anakpawis Representative Fernando Hicap, UP CMC Associate Dean Danilo Arao, the Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura, Tanggol Magsasaka, People’s Alliance for Genuine Agrarian Reform, Promotion of Church People’s Response, National Network of Agrarian Reform Advocates-Youth, Karapatan, and the Student Alliance for Democratic Rights in UP.

Follow @LuisitaWatch on Twitter