After the sham land distribution in Hacienda Luisita (HL), President Aquino’s kin filed charges versus critics and farmers. This only affirms the findings of the National Fact Finding Mission Report (FFM) which held the FFM September 16 -17, 2013.
An arraignment for the Hacienda Luisita 9 was held at the Tarlac City Municipal Trial Court (MTC) for physical assault at 1:30 pm today, while another hearing for them for malicious mischief filed by Tarlac Development Corporation (TADECO) will be held on December 12 at the same venue. TADECO is owned by the Cojuangcos.
Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita’s (AMBALA) legal counsel, Atty. Jobert Pahilga will also file a motion to dismiss charges against the Cutcut 81. 81 farmers in barangay Cutcut were charged by TADECO for unlawful detainer also in the MTC.
The grounds for the dismissal are that unlawful detainer is for lessee or a tenant who did not comply with the conditions of the landlord and who does not want to leave even if the contract expired. So there is no basis for this as the Cutcut 11 are not lessees nor tenants and have been cultivating the land since 2005. The rest is still planted to sugar cane.
Farmers under AMBALA are daring the Pnoy government to file this same case versus TADECO because it did not comply with the 1957 lease condition, whereby it should have given the lands back to the government for land reform a decade later.
TADECO suddenly appeared in the picture right after the Lot Allocation Certificates (LAC) were distributed in Cutcut on July 18. It is also grabbing lands in Barangay Balete and Mapalacsiao. In the former, it had already set-up a barbed wire fence and together with the police have been harassing the farmers ever since. TADECO is also the main suspect in the mysterious killing of Dennis de la Cruz on November 1st.
The FFM which was organized by the Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA), AMBALA and the office of Anakpawis Party-List Representative Fernando Hicap concluded that the land reform in Hacienda Luisita was a sham.
And that the Cojuangco-Aquino clan has evidently sabotaged land reform through every means within its disposal through the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). This includes the illegal, aggressive & immoral claims of TADECO over agricultural lands for a “Luisita master conversion plan” and the use of force, with both private armed personnel and state forces imposing the Cojuangco-Aquinos clan’s illegal authority.
Finally that government’s policy of institutionalized corruption and state terror and repression has made genuine land reform a distant reality for the thousands of farmworkers in Hacienda Luisita and for the millions of other farmers and tillers all over the country.
The recent developments stated above only confirm these findings.
Reference:
Florida “Pong” Sibayan
Acting- Chairperson, AMBALA
CP # +639293201477
And Atty. Jobert Pahilga
CP no. +639394346930
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For further information on the continuing struggles at the Hacienda Luisita, please refer to:
http://bulatlat.com/main/2013/11/17/9-years-after-luisita-massacre-terror-continues/
