Farm workers of Hacienda Luisita belonging to Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (AMBALA) and United Luisita Workers Union (ULWU) walked-out of a meeting organized by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Tarlac City on July 16, 2013.

According to AMBALA acting chairperson Florida “Pong” Sibayan, “it was obvious that DAR was railroading the distribution process by insisting that only 4,099 hectares (has.) would be distributed to 6,212 farm worker beneficiaries (FWB’s) instead of the 4,915 has. ruled by the Supreme Court, minus 580.51 has. sold earlier by Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) to 3 parties.”

DAR reneged on its promise to involve AMBALA in the surveying process. It also lied outright in publicly stating that AMBALA and ULWU attended the ocular inspection of the entire Hacienda Luisita landholding on February 21, 2013; that they were shown the so-called orthophoto maps of the entire landholding; and that they were invited to witness the field segregation survey conducted from March 8 to March 14, 2013.

Other than these, AMBALA also filed a motion in the Supreme Court (SC) on June 13, 2013 requesting it to implore DAR to explain the discrepancy in the number of hectares due for distribution. This has not yet been decided yet by the SC. So how can DAR act unilaterally start the process of awarding lots to FWB’s if this is not yet settled?

While DAR Sec. Delos Reyes was quoted in the papers as saying that unlike in rice lands where tenants occupy specific farm lots, farm workers in haciendas have no permanent farm lots to claim as their own. How can the Secretary say this, when the farm workers in Hacienda Luisita have been tilling and developing the land since 2005, the AMBALA leader stated. Those that have tilled the soil and developed the land would never agree to the lottery, she added.

But DAR is insistent that this would be done from July 18 – August 21, 2013 to determine where the location of the lands would be awarded to the FWB’s, Sibayan added.

FWB’s in the Hacienda would also never sign any other promissory note such as the Application to Purchase and Farmers Undertaking (APFU) even if DAR warned AMBALA on this. This is not even stipulated in the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (CARPER) but only in an administrative order of the DAR.

Clearly what DAR wants is to railroad the land distribution process, divide the unity of the farmworkers and destroy the bungkalan started by them. In essence it wants to destroy the leadership of AMBALA and ULWU against their struggles to expose and oppose the maneuvers of the DAR as dictated by the Cojuangco family and Pnoy.

AMBALA and ULWU will conduct an extensive campaign among the farm workers and their families to oppose these moves, while at the same time seek advice on what legal remedies they can avail of.

Pnoy should think more than twice in his coming State of the Nation Address (SONA) if he wants to gloat about the success of land reform in his family’s plantation. At most it would only be a pyrrhic victory.

Source Verification: Florida “Pong” Sibayan
Acting Chairperson: AMBALA
CP no. +63 9293201477