Luisita farm workers welcome SC decision, call on Aquino to respect ruling
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Farm workers of the Hacienda Luisita
lauded the Supreme Court final decision affirming the distribution of
4,916 hectares of Hacienda Luisita land to the original 4,296 original
farm-worker beneficiaries.
In a unanimous vote, the high court upheld its ruling of November 22
last year on the half-century-old land dispute. Since the 50s, the
6,443-hectare sugar plantation has been controlled by the family of
President Benigno Cojuangco Aquino III. The Supreme Court ruling, if and
when it got implemented, would start transferring that control to the
farm-workers.
“We are happy and sad at the same time. This is the fruit of our
long, arduous struggle. We dedicate this victory to the martyrs of
Hacienda Luisita and to all our supporters,” Rodel Mesa, secretary
general of Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (Uma) and one of the
beneficiaries, told Bulatlat.com in a phone interview.
Mesa was remembering the seven farm workers killed during the violent
dispersal on November 16, 2004, in what is known now as the Hacienda Luisita massacre. Seven others, including supporters, were slain in the aftermath of the massacre.
“This victory is long overdue. Lives should not have been sacrificed
if only the Cojuangco-Aquinos had returned our land to us many years
ago,” Mesa said. He joined the hundreds of farm workers who went to
Baguio City to await the high court decision.
In 1957, the Cojuangcos purchased the Hacienda Luisita through a loan
from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and Central Bank
with the condition that the land would be distributed to the farmworkers
after ten years. But the Cojuangco-Aquinos never gave up control of the
vast sugar estate in the decades that followed.
“The Supreme Court decision is a big leap forward for the Luisita
farmworkers and the Filipino peasantry’s life-and-death struggle for
genuine agrarian reform,” said Randall Echanis, deputy secretary general
of the Kilusang MAgbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), in a statement. “Their
victory will inspire other farmers to pursue with the struggle,” Echanis
said..... MORE
Source: Bulatlat.com
URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/04/24/luisita-farm-workers-welcome-sc-decision-call-on-aquino-to-respect-ruling/
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