Should the land use design of the Cojuangco family for the hacienda push through, not a single hectare will be spared. The entire plantation will be transformed into a vast residential, commercial and industrial site. In the process, the hacienda people’s claim on the land will vanish.

Moral and legal?

The Cojuangco family maintains that the SDO is “moral and legal,” saying that since 1989, the hacienda has ceased to be an agrarian issue but a corporate matter. For the farm workers, the SDO snatched the land away from their hands and must be revoked for them to be able to reclaim the land.

The SDO made life more difficult not only for the farm workers but also for the 700-strong members of the Central Azucarera de Tarlac Labor Union (CATLU). Its members operate the sugar mill. As land use conversion remained unabated, land planted to sugar cane shrunk and so did the volume of raw sugar that goes to the mill for processing. Over the years, more than 500 sugar mill workers have lost their jobs as entire departments were closed and management resorted to “cost-cutting” measures.

CATLU members joined the strike not only because their wages and benefits are low but also because they did not wish to be scabs to the plantation workers’ strike. The sugar mill and plantation workers and their families comprise 10 barangays in the hacienda with a population of about 35,000. All of them are in danger of being displaced or deprived of work in the land use plan of the Cojungco family. As workers who labor for the same master, they feel they share the same destiny and must fight together to defend their rights.

Since the Nov. 16, 2004 massacre of seven striking workers, Hacienda Luisita has become known as a place where the blood of workers flow freely whenever they assert their right to the land and their livelihood.

The striking workers continue to guard their picket lines surrounding the sugar mill. Since March, some 300 soldiers from the Northern Luzon Command (NOLCOM) have been deployed in the barrios of the hacienda. The generals of NOLCOM said that the soldiers were sent to “protect” the people from the New People’s Army (NPA) and the Communist Party of Philippines (CPP) which the military blames for “orchestrating” the strike.

The people of the hacienda however see the soldiers’ presence as the Cojuangco family’s way of putting an end to the strike and have called for their withdrawal. The land question in Hacienda Luisita persists and so does the conflict between the people and the Cojuangco family. (Bulatlat.com)

 Save as PDF