Kilusan.Net

Six years after the massacre which claimed the lives of seven farmers, justice remains elusive for the martyrs of Hacienda Luisita and their families. For decades, the Cojuangco-Aquinos have maintained their hold on the thousands of hectares of land that comprise HLI, despite an order from the high court in 1985, and through the passage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program during Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino’s term as president. CARP allowed for the stock distribution option (SDO), which exchanged land distribution with the awarding of corporate stocks.

This is the same SDO which left the HLI farm workers with only P9.50 a week by 2004, the same SDO which caused their uprising—to which the Cojuangco-Aquino clan, sanctioned by the Arroyo government, responded with violence which was the HLI massacre.

Now, as yet another Cojuangco-Aquino runs for the executive office, it appears that justice will never be meted out for the perpetrators of the massacre, and the land of the hacienda will remain in the hands of the Cojuangco-Aquinos.

For months, Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III has been challenged to make a clear stance on the issue of HLI and to distribute the land to its tillers, to no avail. He has continued to evade the questions thrown his way with vague promises to address the issue after the elections, even going to say that he is only “a minor shareholder” who has no real stake in the hacienda.

Clearly, however, he represents the vested interests of the landed Cojuangco-Aquinos, as he had done after the massacre in 2004. As part of the Cojuangco clan, Noynoy clearly has no intention of following through on his promises to distribute the land of the hacienda after the elections, and neither would he bring to justice the perpetrators of the massacre in 2004.

We see a glaring similarity between the way with which Noynoy is handling the issue and his mother had done before him. Cory has not only failed to distribute the land of the HLI to the farmers, she has also put in place a law which exploited the farmers further.

Noynoy’s failure to address the HLI issue swiftly is markedly contrary to his promises to represent the toiling Filipino masses and their interests as president. This alone should make all Filipinos wary of his true intentions for running for office.

Six years of injustice for the victims of the HLI massacre is enough. The decades of exploitation and continued reign of the Cojuangco-Aquinos inside the hacienda has gone on for too long, and will continue for another six years if Noynoy is proclaimed president.

To prove true his intentions as a presidential candidate, Noynoy must come clean on the issue of Hacienda Luisita. He must hold accountable the Cojuangco-Aquinos for the massacre and distribute the land to the farmers now.

Failure to do so only implies his incompetency as a leader, and the vested interests which has motivated him to run for office. Such vested interests, indeed, are alarming, should he win the elections. And until the issue of HLI is laid to rest, Noynoy’s candidacy and motives for running must be scrutinized by the public.

Signed:

Lito Bais
Chairperson
United Luisita Workers’ Union

Charrize Banez
UP Student Regent

Rain Sindayen
University Student Council Chairperson
UP Diliman

Gem Garcia
ANAKBAYAN Chairperson
UP Diliman Chapter

Reference:
Rainier Sindayen
University Student Council Chairperson
0915.8922168
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