UNITY STATEMENT
KAPITBISIG: A Campaign for Justice to the
Victims of the Hacienda Luisita Massacre
We denounce
the bloody dispersal of the strike at the Hacienda Luisita (HL) last
November 16, 2004 by elements of the AFP, the PNP and HL security guards
that left seven dead, scores wounded and more than a hundred illegally
arrested from the ranks of the mill workers and farm laborers. We deplore
that their cries for food, jobs and justice have been met with a hail of
bullets coming from those who profess to be protectors of the people.
The Hacienda
is a vast estate covering 6,453 hectares of fertile and productive land
owned by the more than 5,000 workers and farm laborers whose labor has
made it possible to earn hundreds of millions of pesos in annual income.
But by virtue of the Stocks Distribution Option (SDO) and other
questionable schemes that included the conversion of some 500 hectares of
land for commercial, industrial and recreational purposes, the workers
have suffered diminishing workdays to only 1 to 2 a week that, in many
cases, earns them a measly P9.50 take-home pay after deductions. These
schemes also provided the management a ready excuse to retrench 327 farm
laborers, including 9 officers of their union, a clear case of union
busting, and ignore the grievances of the mill workers during the CBA
talks resulting in a deadlock.
We find it
immoral that the powerful Cojuangco-Aquino clan that has managed and
controlled Hacienda Luisita for decades continues to get the biggest share
of its bounty that affords them a life of luxury and ease that most
Filipinos can only dream of. In contrast, the workers and their families
are not permitted to cultivate even a tiny vegetable plot to relieve their
hunger and want.
We consider
it condemnable that the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE), the
police and the military effectively became the instruments of management
to violently disperse the combined strike of the United Luisita Workers
Union (ULWU) and the Central Azucarera de Tarlac Labor Union (CATLU) three
times before eventually leading to the bloody carnage of November 16.
We deplore
the recent lop-sided decision of DOLE Secretary Patricia Sto Tomas on the
CATLU strike which resulted in the punitive firing out of union officers
who are leading the workers’ struggle and the grant of economic benefits
that are only slightly better than that offered by management. This
oppressive decision adds fuel to the fire at Hacienda Luisita and is bound
to lead to more human rights abuse and violent clashes between the
strikers, their supporters and government authorities.
We stand and
fight for justice to be rendered to those slain, wounded, unjustly
arrested and all the workers in Hacienda Luisita. We are resolutely in
solidarity with the striking workers in Hacienda Luisita. We reject any
attempt to blame the victims themselves for the carnage and strongly
oppose the whitewashing of government responsibility and accountability.
We therefore
pledge to:
1.
Support the
filing and prosecution of criminal, civil and administrative cases against
those responsible for the massacre, from the masterminds to the
perpetrators.
2.
Support
continuing investigation into the facts, circumstances and underlying
causes of the massacre as well as subsequent, related cases of human
rights violations.
3.
Expose the
unjust and inhumane working and living conditions of sugar mill workers,
farm workers and their families in Hacienda Luisita and work to reform
these.
4.
Uphold the
workers’ right to strike, to peaceful assembly and freedom of speech and
to form their unions and other democratic organizations and oppose
suppression of these rights.
5.
Support the
legitimate demands of the sugar mill and farm workers including their
ongoing strike and protest actions to assert and defend their democratic
rights.
6.
Gather the
broadest support for genuine land reform at HL to include the
thoroughgoing review of the SDO scheme with a view to its revocation
should it be proven a failure in terms of improving the lot of its
supposed beneficiaries.
7.
Gather the
broadest support for the repeal of all labor laws and issuances that
oppress and exploit the workers.
Finally, we
call on the Filipino people to join hands in working for a truly just,
democratic, peaceful and prosperous Philippine society.
Signed, this
18th of January, 2005
University of the
Philippines,
Diliman, Quezon City
Related article
Anti-Crime Crusader, RM Awardee, Church
Leaders Back Luisita Workers
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