Solve Hacienda Luisita massacre first, Noynoy urged

Militant organizations on Sunday appealed to Senator Benigno “Noynoy" Aquino III to help give justice to the victims of the so-called Hacienda Luisita massacre if he is truly sincere in helping the hacienda’s farm workers. "Noynoy is now having a hard time laying a social justice content in his platform but not without addressing first the Hacienda Luisita controversy," said Anakpawis party-list representative Rafael Mariano in a statement Sunday. "The killings of union president Ricardo Ramos, Councilor Abel Ladera, Father William Tadena and others who died at the picket lines must also be investigated and resolved," said Renato Reyes, Jr., secretary general of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), in a separate statement. Fourteen people, including two children, were killed while dozens of others were injured when more than 1,000 police and soldiers stormed a blockade of 6,000 plantation workers and their families at the Hacienda Luisita on November 16, 2004. The workers were asking for the reinstatement of 327 unionists, including nine leaders, who were fired 10 days earlier. The appeal was made a day after Aquino announced that he is mulling on giving up his family's rights to the 6,435-hectare sugar plantation in Tarlac province “to divorce it from politics." Aquino, son of the late President Corazon “Cory" Aquino and slain senator Benigno “Ninoy" Aquino Jr., announced last week his bid for the presidency in next year’s national elections. "If Senator Aquino is to run for president, he should work for justice for the victims of human rights violations in his backyard," said Danilo Ramos, secretary general of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP).
Militant labor organizations, however, were not pleased with Aquino’s plans for Hacienda Luisita, which was owned by the Cojuangco family and was spared from actual distribution to farmer-beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) during the presidency of Mrs. Aquino. “While we are glad that Senator Noynoy has finally spoken on the issue of Hacienda Luisita, we are worried that the course of action that he is thinking of is different, even far, from what we are asking him to do, that it won’t actually benefit the Luisita farmers," said Elmer “Bong" Labog of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU). Oct. 30 memo Two groups representing farm workers in Hacienda Luisita meanwhile urged Aquino to scrap the October 30 memorandum of the Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) that seeks to stop all planting activities inside the controversial sugar estate. Leaders of the United Luisita Workers Union (ULWU) and the Alyansa ng Mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Hacienda Luisita (Ambala) said Aquino and the entire Aquino and Cojuangco clans should recall the memo and allow farm workers to continue the cultivation. "The first thing Senator Noynoy should do is to recognize the cultivation campaign of Hacienda Luisita workers is an assertion of farm workers' rights and therefore lawful and politically and morally correct. Based on that premise, the October 30 memo is patently illegal and contrary to national interest and collective sentiment of the Hacienda Luisita farm workers," said ULWU acting chairman Lito Bais. HLI, incorporated on Aug. 23, 1988, controls 70 percent of Luisita’s shares of stocks. The firm’s incorporators are Aquino’s uncles and aunts, namely Pedro Cojuangco, Josephine Reyes, Jose Cojuangco Jr., Teresita A. Lopa, and Paz Teopaco, all brothers and sisters of Mrs. Aquino. Bais said a total of 838 families had already benefited from the current cultivation campaign in Hacienda Luisita. Anakpawis’ Mariano said the Hacienda Luisita issue has become “a social justice issue." “This has become a life-and-death struggle of farm workers wanting to own the land they till. This is justice for those who died fighting for their rights to the land," he said. He also said Aquino’s uncles and aunts should also be ready to give up their rights over the land and give it to the farm workers for free “if they want to give social justice its true meaning." - GMANews.TV