Activists from 42 countries call on Aquino to give up Hacienda Luisita

Activists from 42 countries call on Aquino to give up Hacienda Luisita

“Hacienda Luisita belongs to Luisita land tillers. President Aquino and his family have no legal, moral and political bases to keep the sugar estate.” – International League of Peoples’ Struggle
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Hundreds of activists from 42 countries called on President Benigno S. Aquino III to give up Hacienda Luisita and distribute the land for free.

In a resolution, delegates of the Fourth International Assembly of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) said: “Hacienda Luisita belongs to Luisita land tillers. President Aquino and his family have no legal, moral and political bases to keep the sugar estate. We, the social activists of the world demand for the Aquino and the Cojuangco syndicate to give up Luisita in favor of the farm workers.”

Speaking in a press conference, Prof. Gill Boehringer, a law professor from Australia, called the injustice to the farm workers as “basically theft” and compared the Philippines to Cuba.

Australian law professor Gill Boehringer criticizes the country’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. (Photo by Ronalyn V. Olea / bulatlat.com)

“Fidel Castro’s mother did not speak to him for a very long time because when he became president, the first property to be nationalized was the Castro plantation. What happens here? It’s exempted. That’s supposed to be comprehensive agrarian reform program. CARP [Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program] is crap. It’s a terrible situation to have the president [Cory Aquino], and then the president’s son [Noynoy] who also became the president, supporting that kind of fraud on the people, it’s basically theft,” Boehringer said.

Under CARP, non-land transfer schemes such as stock distribution option (SDO) are allowed.
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Source:  Bulatlat.com

URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/07/11/activists-from-42-countries-call-on-aquino-to-give-up-hacienda-luisita/