KMU to SC: invalidate Luisita referendum, distribute lands now

Labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno called on the Supreme Court today to nullify the referendum conducted in Hacienda Luisita over the weekend, which merely forced farmers to endorse the stock distribution option (SDO) scheme that prevented their actual ownership of the Luisita lands in the first place.

In 2005, the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council, bowing to persistent pressure from farmers’ groups, decided to revoke the SDO in Luisita. Upon the request of Hacienda Luisita Incorporated, however, the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order on the implementation of the directive in 2006. The SC is now set to begin the oral arguments on the case on Aug. 18.

“The referendum conducted in Hacienda Luisita over the weekend does not at all resemble anything close to land distribution. Neither is it an attempt towards the latter. It is a badly-conceptualized, badly-executed publicity stunt which attempts to legitimize a form of land-grabbing done by the Cojuangco and Aquino clans since 21 years ago,” said KMU chairperson Elmer “Bong” Labog.

“The referendum subverts the very idea of land reform. It should be nullified and declared illegal by the Supreme Court,” he added. 

KMU recalled that a Manila court has already ordered the distribution of Luisita lands to farmers in 1985, but when Aquino the mother became president in 1986, she ordered the solicitor-general to withdraw the government’s court case on Luisita. In 1989, the Cojuangco and Aquino clans concocted the SDO scheme to evade the actual distribution of lands to farmers.

“The SDO scheme is at the root of the strike of the Luisita farmers and farm workers that was brutally attacked in 2004. Farmers then were only getting a take-home pay of up to P9.00 a week. That is the Cojuangcos’ and Aquinos’ concept of being a shareholder of Luisita.” Labog said.

“The recent referendum conducted by the Cojuangco and Aquino families with the help of traitors who pretend to be peasant leaders will only maintain the decades-old deprivation of farmers of their right to land and life. Agrarian reform entails farmers actually owning lands, making these productive, and improving their living conditions. This is what is due to the Luisita farmers and what was robbed of them by the SDO scheme,” Labog added.

“History is repeating itself. The Cojuangco and Aquino clans are again demostrating how they will twist rules according to their interests, bullying Luisita farmers into submission because they are again in power.”

The labor leader recalled that in his campaign for the presidency, President Noynoy Aquino insisted that he cannot do anything on the Luisita issue as he only has a one-percent share in the land. But just a few days before the election, he promised that the Luisita lands will be distributed in five years.  

“What will Noynoy be saying about the Luisita issue now? That the case is closed and land ownership has been distributed within just one month of his presidency? He should be ashamed that his family is acting so fast to continue their land-grabbing scheme with just one month into his administration,” Labog said.

“That is why we challenge the Supreme Court: revoke the wrong decision it made earlier, which favors continuing the implementation of SDO in Luisita, and therefore also render the recent referendum invalid and illegal,” he added. #