San Miguel, Tarlac—Thousands of residents and tillers of Hacienda Luisita on Saturday forged a united stand for peace and prosperity amid attempts by external forces to muddle the issue on the distribution of contested portions of land to landless farmers inside the estate.
Residents in the 11 villages along with their respective local government leaders staged a peace caravan inside Hacienda Luisita and signed a “Manifesto of Peace” for solidarity and cooperation for safe and productive life after small groups of non-Hacienda residents illegally occupied a portion of the 358 hectares of land owned by Tarlac Development Corp. up for distribution by the government to landless farmers.
Hacienda Luisita covers 10 barangays in the three municipalities in Tarlac: Barangays Cut-Cut, Bantog, Balete, Asturias, Lourdes and Mapalacsiao in Tarlac City; Parang, Pando and Mabilog in the town of Concepcion; and Barangay Motrico in La Paz town.
“These people were harassing legitimate residents to portray that Hacienda Luisita has no peace and order. We just want a peaceful resolution to this problem,” said barangay chairman Rafael Gatus of Mapalacsiao village.
Gatus declined to identiy the affiliation of the group which started “invading” areas of the disputed property after Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano announced that the agency will distribute them to landless farmers.
Residents, however, hinted that the illegal residents belong to an unidentified urban poor sector.
The said property was sold by the Cojuangco family to Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. in 1996 and form part of the 4,915 hectares covered by the stock distribution option, one of the options farmers could benefit under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.
Gatus said the acts demonstrated by the non-Hacienda Luisita residents is driving away prospective investors in the vast sugar plantation owned by the Cojuangco clan.
“How can they be beneficiaries of the land when they are not legitimate farmers from Hacienda Luisita?” said Gatus, whose group sent a letter to DAR Secretary Mariano last March requesting for dialogue to devise a peaceful resolution on the issue, but their plea apparently fell on deaf ears as of yesterday.
The peace caravan dubbed as “Kapayapaan, Pagkaka-isa, at trabaho (Peace, Prosperity, and Livelihood)” was made to show unity and condemn the series of harassments by non-residents of the Hacienda.
“This caravan is a call for peace, unity, and prosperity, and livelihood as we condemn and discourage any future violent protests from the disrupting area,” said Gatus.
He added that legitimate residents are bothered by the acts of the “small vocal and violent minority” who are, ironically, not from the area.
“The same majority is bothered by a small group and violent minority who are, ironically, not from the area and do not understand that things have dramatically changed considerably at Hacienda Luisita,” villages officials declared.
“It’s really just a case of you can’t please everybody. Much to the dismay of peace-loving farmers and residents,” they said.
The barangay chairmen signed a manifesto which signified their commitment towards peace and development aimed at changing public bad impression of the hacienda.