Another company owned by the Cojuangco-Aquino family has been grabbing lands in the disputed farmlands inside the sugar estate.

This is according to Anakpawis Party-list, which slammed the move of Central Azucarera de Tarlac (CAT) to deploy armed security groups and illegally fence and bulldoze an estimated 200 hectares of farmlands in Brgys. Mapalacsiao and Parang in Hacienda Luisita, Tarlac that started on March 5.

“It is an alarming trend in Hacienda Luista that farm lands supposed to be distributed to farmer beneficiaries are being excluded through dubious, illegal, immoral and violent means led by different Cojuangco-Aquino corporations,” said Anakpawis Rep. Fernando Hicap.

Hicap said CAT (like the Tarlac Development Corporation or Tadeco) has no right to claim or exclude farm lands for distribution as the Supreme Court recognized the farm workers ownership of Luisita. “Because it is theirs (farmer-beneficiaries) in the first place. The Cojuangco-Aquinos don’t own even a plot of land in Hacienda Luisita in the first place,” Hicap said.

‘Family effort land grabbing’

The Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (Ambala), meanwhile, said that the President’s sister and actress Kris Aquino, like the rest of the members of the board of directors of the CAT, should be liable for criminal infringement related to the ongoing violent bulldozing and fencing off of 214 hectares of agricultural lands in Brgys. Mapalacsiao and Parang in Hacienda Luisita.

The President’s sister successfully pursued a seat on the CAT board just last October. Ambala sees this as a move to consolidate Cojuangco-Aquino’s influence in Hacienda Luisita and a prepare for the media celebrity’s supposed gubernatorial bid in Tarlac for the 2016 elections.

“The continued aggressive claim of CAT and other corporate avatars of the Cojuangco-Aquinos on the lands that supposedly belong to the actual tillers speaks much of the Presidential family’s anti-peasant practices and could in fact gravely affect Kris Aquino’s political ambitions in Tarlac,” said Florida Sibayan, chairperson of Ambala.

Hicap also blamed the Department of Agrarian Reform for the continuing social unrest in Hacienda Luisita. “The DAR or the ‘Department of Aquino Land Reform’ served its purpose (of acceding to) the interest of the president’s clan,” he said.

He added that DAR implemented a chaotic, confusing and questionable land reform distribution process by way of a “tambiolo system”. While it is silent on Tadeco and CAT’s land grabbing escapade, it turns deaf and blind on the latter’s legal action of filing trump-up charges against the farm workers.

“What we have right now in Hacienda Luisita is a family effort land grabbing affair. They not only defy but twist a court decision to protect their economic interest.” said Hicap.

Several hundreds of hectares have been secured by another Cojuangco-Aquino company, the Tarlac Development Corporation (Tadeco), in Brgy. Balete after a series of violent attacks by Tadeco guards and Tarlac PNP men against Balete farmers since December 2014.

Farmers have consistently asserted their right over the disputed  lands, but have been excluded from the total area of distributable Hacienda Luisita lands.

According to Sibayan, the disputed lands must be covered by the DAR for distribution as per the explicit provision of the Hacienda Luisita Supreme Court ruling of April 24, 2012 which instructs the DAR to find all other agricultural lands besides the 4,915 hectares officially declared distributable.

The lands, which have been supposedly included in the land distribution process, according to the group, have not yet been physically awarded to the so-called Luisita farmer-beneficiaries.

“These lands are instead being usurped and controlled by sugar cane production financiers who are said to be mere pawns themselves of the Cojuangco-Aquinos,” said Sibayan.

Deceptive measures

Farmers also criticized Tadeco, which has been circulating a petition to bolster their claims over the disputed hundreds of land and will bring peace and development to the Luisita farmers.

Ambala said the petition entitled “Manifesto of the Residents of Hacienda Luisita” has been circulating in ten barangays together with a newsletter published by Luisita Advocacies, Public Information Service (Lapis).

“This petition is deceptive and distributed by a shady entity called Lapis,” the group said.

They also said that the current petition is no different from the referenda in 1989 and 2010, which skirted land distribution. “Such measures of deceit have long been the trademark style of the Cojuangco-Aquino clan in Hacienda Luisita, complementing its equally-proven propensity to employ violence in the name of its big-landlord interests,” the group added.

Lapis stated that Tadeco’s development of its 358 hectares of land would propel Tarlac’s economy but was scuttled by the Department of Agrarian Reform’s (DAR) Notice of Coverage on the said lands.

“It failed to state though that the 31st Mechanized Battalion has a detachment right inside in the disputed lands, particularly in Barangay Balete and police including a fully armed SWAT team that were used in an illegal eviction action that Tadeco ordered in the said village on December 21st, 2013,” Sibayan said, refering to Lapis’ denial of ongoing militarization in the area.

“The unabated agrarian unrest in Hacienda Luisita is escalating in a pace comparable to that of the tension which led to the tragic Hacienda Luisita massacre ten years ago, the main perpetrators of which, the family of Kris Aquino and the Philippine President himself, have yet to be prosecuted much less punished,” the group said.