Since acquiring Hacienda Luisita in 1957 through a government-guaranteed loan, there was no intention on their part to disperse the vast sugar estate to the farmers who have tilled the land for decades, which prompted the government of the late President Ferdinand Marcos to file a case against the family-owned corporation to force the Cojuangco-Aquinos to subdivide the land to its farmers.
However, upon assuming power in 1986, the first thing Cory Aquino had to do was to order then Solicitor General Frank Chavez to withdraw the government case against the Luisita management and then circumvent the comprehensive agrarian reform law through the stock distribution option.
Fortunately for the Luisita farmers, former President, now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, then sitting as chairman of the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council, nullified the SDO and ordered the distribution of the more than 6,000 hectares of land to its farmer-beneficiaries..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribune.net.ph/index.php/commentary/item/1098-keeping-luisita-at-all-cost
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