THE 358.22 hectares of land that the Tarlac Development Corp. (Tadeco), owned by the family of former President Benigno Aquino III, was still fenced with barbed wire and guarded by heavily-armed men days after the Department of Agrarian Reform denied the company’s appeal to be excluded from land reform.
The Unyon ng mga Magsasaka sa Agrikultura (UMA) called on the Cojuangco-Aquino family to leave the place and pull out their goons and soldiers as directed by the agency and finally implement land reform on the land that used to be part of the Aquino family’s Hacienda Luisita.
“Soldiers stationed within this land reform area, particularly a company under the 31st IBPA, 3rd Mechanized Battalion must also go back to their barracks and dismantle their company headquarters located in the area,” he said.
“We also call on the Department of Justice to take action on hundreds of criminal complaints filed by farm workers in 2014 regarding the destruction of crops, burning of huts, illegal arrests, mauling and other atrocities by the Cojuangco-Aquinos in relation to the Tadeco case.”
Florita Sibayan, Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (Ambala) chairperson, herself was a victim of mauling, illegal arrest and destruction of her family’s farm lot and property within the Tadeco area,
Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Luis Meinard Pangulayan confirmed that the Tadeco area was fenced with barbed wires and heavily guarded by armed men although Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano denied last week Tadeco’s appeal to retain its ownership of the land.
Ramos also hit the ex-president’s kin for using people posing as farmer-beneficiaries to make false claims on a 500-hectare property still under dispute.
He alleged the family of the then president and their business partners in the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. and Luisita Industrial Park Corp. have escalated their long-running black propaganda against farmer-beneficiaries belonging to Ambala and their leaders.
Even Mariano has not been spared from the smear campaign, he said.
“Instead of spreading deception and lies in the media, the Cojuangco-Aquinos and their minions must let Luisita land reform areas be,” he said, adding the two supposed leaders of Hacienda Luisita farmers—Noel Mallari and Edwin Cabilangan—were allegedly agents of the Aquino family.
Ramos, along with Sibayan, expressed alarm over the Cojuangco-Aquino stance should the Department of Agrarian Reform revoke the conversion order on the 500 hectares of land being controlled by LIPCO, RCBC and the Luisita Land Corp., the farmer-beneficiaries would not receive the P1.33-billion shares from the proceeds of sale from the Hacienda Luisita Inc. as mandated by the Supreme Court.
On April 24, 2012, the High Court issued a landmark decision, ordering the distribution of close to 5,000 hectares of the Hacienda Luisita to about 6,000 farmer-beneficiaries based on the 1989 valuation of the land.
Also, the Supreme Court ordered the settlement of the salaries, benefits, the three percent of the gross sales of the production of the agricultural lands, another three percent share in the proceeds of the sale of the 500-hectare covered land and the 80.51-hectare Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway lot.
Ramos asserted the farmer-beneficiaries must get both their P1.33-billion share and right to become the beneficiaries of the 500-hectare lot.