Duterte distributes remaining portions of Hacienda Luisita to land reform beneficiaries

President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday completed the distribution of remaining portions of land in Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac under the agrarian reform program.

At a ceremony in Quezon City, Duterte led the ceremonial distribution of more than 87,000 hectares of agricultural land, including the remaining 112 hectares of the sprawling estate owned by the family of former President Corazon Aquino. 

Hacienda Luisita used to occupy 6,435 hectares but over the years, portions were sold to industrial companies.

A stock distribution plan was put in place in 1989 when Hacienda Luisita Inc. forged an agreement with thousands of farmers for shares in the corporation instead of land.

The land distribution issue was elevated to the Supreme Court, which decided with finality in 2012 to give the more than 4,300 hectares of land to farmer-beneficiaries.

Duterte earlier took issue with the Aquino government’s implementation of the land reform program. He said violent incidents at the Hacienda Luisita could have been prevented had Aquino included the sugar plantation in the land distribution program.

"Alam mo, ‘yung the greatest aberration sa land reform, was the Philippines was declared, the whole of the country as a land reform program area. Pero tinanggal nila ang Doña Luisita," Duterte said in his speech at the 31st anniversary of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program in Quezon City.

"Far and in between the years that it was fighting, I mean the tenants, marami ho ang namatay. A lot of people died, invested blood just to realize until late today ‘yung mga lupa na dapat sa kanila."

The President, however, clarified that he had nothing against the Aquino family.

Duterte said his family supported the political career of Aquino and her son, former President Benigno Aquino III.

"I’d like to put it in record that for the first two Aquino presidents, sumuporta po kami, ang pamilya namin sa Davao, because we believed in Corazon Aquino," he said.

It was Aquino who appointed Duterte officer-in-charge vice mayor of Davao City in 1986, kicking off a political career that ultimately took him to Malacañang. — BM, GMA News