MANILA - Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, Liberal Party standard bearer for the May 2010 polls, held a meeting with other members of the Cojuangco family Tuesday to talk about the Hacienda Luisita dispute.
The family meeting comes on the heels of the fifth anniversary of the Hacienda Luisita massacre where 7 people died and hundreds of farm workers were wounded in a clash with police and soldiers during a blockade on Nov. 16, 2004.
In an interview on ANC’s Strictly Politics on Tuesday, Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) spokesman Atty. Antonio Ligon said, the Liberal Party presidential candidate has a minimal stake in the land.
“It will have no material impact,” Ligon told ANC’s Pia Hontiveros on Strictly Politics.
Ligon also defended the Stock Distribution Option (SDO) on which the sugar estate was placed to comply with the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.
“Kung ibibigay mo ‘yong lupa, ang social justice provision natin is not automatically land distribution,” he said.
Akbayan Chair Emeritus Rep. Etta Rosales meanwhile is pushing for the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (CARPER) and had indicated so in an open letter addressed to Aquino last week.
She cited a recommendation from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) for the redistribution of land to farmers.
“You know, the argument given was, this was put to a vote, that farmers voted in favor (of the SDO). I think logic and good faith would let us know na hindi umubra. Let us not blame anybody. The SDO did not work,” Rosales also told Strictly Politics.
Rosales added, the DAR recommendation came out in early 2005, but was blocked by a 2006 temporary restraining order (TRO) granted to the Cojuangcos.
“That was 3 years ago. The TRO is still in effect,” Rosales said.
Rosales appealed to Aquino to do what he can to resolve the issue.
“This is bigger than your family. Dumistansya ka,” Rosales addressed the LP standard bearer.
Ligon meanwhile maintained that the farmers were given lots by HLI.
“There’s the 33.296% ownership (of the land). On top of that, they’ve been given 3% of gross sales from 1989 to 2004 – that was given to 10,500 farmers. They were given 240 square meters. Everything is under progress,” Ligon enumerated.
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