The Supreme Court has ruled that the Cojuangco clan-owned Hacienda Luisita Inc. has fully complied with its judgment rendered seven years ago ordering the distribution to 6,296 farm worker beneficiaries of the unused or unspent balance from the P1.33-billion sale of its three lots covered by the agrarian reform program, but were sold to private and government entities in 1996.
In a two-page resolution, the Court said that the three members of audit panel formed by the Department of Agrarian Reform have determined that there is no longer any unspent or unused balance of the sales proceeds available for distribution to the farmer beneficiaries.
In its decision issued on July 5, 2011, the Court directed HLI to pay the original 6,296 Hacienda Luisita farm worker beneficiaries the consideration of P500 million received by it from Luisita Realty Inc. for the sale to the latter of 200 hectares out of the 500 hectares covered by the Aug. 14, 1996 Conversion Order; the consideration of P750 million received by its owned subsidiary, Centennary Holdings Inc., for the sale of the remaining 300 hectares of the said 500-hectare lot to Luisita Industrial Park Corp.; and the P80.5 million paid by the government through the Bases Conversion and Development Authority for the sale of the 80.51-hectare lot used for the construction of the SCTEX road.
The SC also directed the DAR to tap the services of a reputable accounting firm approved by the parties to audit the books of HLI and Centennary Holdings Inc. to determine if the P1,330,511,500 proceeds of the sale of the three lots were actually used or spent for legitimate corporate purposes.
Any unspent or unused balance and any disallowed expenditures as determined by the audit, according to the Court must be distributed to the 6,296 original FWBs.
“To sum up, all three members of the audit panel have determined that the legitimate corporate expenses of HLI for the years 1998 up to 2011, coupled with the taxes and expenses related to the sale of the 3% share already distributed to the FWBs, far exceeded the proceeds of the sale of the adverted 580.51-hectare lot,” the resolution said.
Thus, it said there is no more unused proceeds that should be given out to the FWBs, the SC noted.
The members of the audit panel include the firms of Ocampo, Mendoza, Leong and Lim (OMLL) and Navarro Amper & Co. (Deloitte), and certified public accountant Carissa May Pay-Penson.
The panel was specifically tasked to determine if the P1.33 billion “was actually used or spent for legitimate corporate purposes.”
In its July 5, 2011 decision, the Court affirmed the validity of the order issued by the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) which revoked the stock distribution option plan (SDO) that have been offered to the original 6,296 farmer-beneficiaries of Hacienda Luisita, in lieu of land distribution which is mandated under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
However, the affirmed with modification PARC’ Resolution No. 2005-32-01 issued on December 22, 2005 by allowing the original farmer-beneficiaries to choose to remain as stockholders of HLI or get the land due to them.
In a resolution issued on November 22, 2011, the Court decided to modify its July 5, 2011 decision by directing the total distribution of the plantation to its farmer-beneficiaries.
The Court granted the partial motions for reconsideration filed by Presidential Agrarian Reform Council and the Department of Agrarian Reform, Alyansa ng mga Mangagawang Bukid sa Hacienda Luisita, and the Farmworkers Agrarian Reform Movement, Inc. seeking to recall and set aside its decision with respect to the option granted to the farmworker-beneficiaries to remain with HLI through the stock distribution plan (SDP).