Supreme Court fails to issue decision again on Hacienda Luisita agrarian dispute

Supreme Court fails to issue decision again on Hacienda Luisita agrarian dispute

“By not issuing any decision today, the Supreme Court prolongs the sufferings of farm workers and provides opportunity for the Cojuangco-Aquinos to maneuver.” – Lito Bais, president of the United Luisita Workers Union (Ulwu) said.

By RONALYN V. OLEA
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – Farm workers from Hacienda Luisita left their homes at 4 a.m. today to witness the promulgation of the decision of the Supreme Court on the decades-old agrarian dispute.

After hours of waiting, they went home empty-handed as the Supreme Court still did not issue any decision on the legality of the Stock Distribution Option (SDO) scheme in the 6, 453 disputed sugar estate owned by President Benigno S. Aquino III and family. The case has been pending with the high court since 2005 after the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) ordered the revocation of the SDO.

The Cojuangco-Aquinos implemented the SDO in 1989, one of the non-land transfer schemes allowed by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law. In lieu of land distribution, corporate shares were distributed to farmer-beneficiaries.

“By not issuing any decision today, the Supreme Court prolongs the sufferings of farm workers and provides opportunity for the Cojuangco-Aquinos to maneuver,” Lito Bais, president of the United Luisita Workers Union (Ulwu) said.

Long wait 

Bais, like most of the farm workers at Hacienda Luisita, have been waiting for decades to gain control of the land.

Frustrated, farm workers from Hacienda Luisita and their supporters bang the gates of the Supreme Court.(Photo by Ronalyn V. Olea / bulatlat.com)

In 1967, the Hacienda Luisita should have been distributed to the farm workers had the Cojuangcos complied with the conditions of the loan from the Central Bank. When the Cojuangcos purchased the sugar mill and the Hacienda Luisita land through a loan from the Central Bank in 1957, the loan agreement provided that the land should be distributed to the farmers after ten years.

In 1985, a Manila trial court ordered the distribution of Hacienda Luisita to the farm workers. When Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino became president, the case was dismissed by the Court of Appeals (CA)..... MORE

Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/06/14/supreme-court-fails-to-issue-decision-again-on-hacienda-luisita-agrarian-dispute/