AGRARIAN Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano on Friday stood pat on his ground to nullify the use of lottery draw to allocate plots to farmer-beneficiaries of Hacienda Luisita Inc. owned by the family ofӬformer President Benigno Aquino III in Tarlac province.Ӭ
Mariano said he and the other agrarian reform officials will troop to Hacienda Luisita “in a move to”¨invalidate the tambiolo scheme disqualifying 111 Hacienda Luisista farm worker-beneficiaries from the government’s agrarian reform”¨program.””¨
“We begin genuine agrarian reform at the belly of the beast —in Hacienda Luisita, where farmer-tenants have struggled to take the land due to them for more than a quarter of a century, ever since agrarian reform was introduced in the country,” he said.”¨
The left-leaning Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, of which Mariano was the former chairman, slammed the Department of Agrarian Reform’s “tambiolo land reform” in the Cojuangco-Aquino owned sugar”¨estate, saying the scheme was a fraud.”¨
KMP chairperson Joseph Canlas earlier said Aquino controlled then Agrarian Reform secretary Virgilio de los Reyes to use “deception, coercion and intimidation” of land distribution.”¨