The Philippine Online Chronicles

Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano said that the report clearly demonstrates that Liberal Party standard bearer Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III’s statements are "sheer posturing" and that the Cojuangco-Aquinos will never let loose their "stranglehold of the hacienda."

The Hacienda Luisita controversy has been hounding Noynoy, the standard-bearer of Liberal Party for the May 2010 elections.

The report quoted Fernando Cojuangco, the chief operating officer of the holding company that owns the plantation, as saying that the extended Cojuangco family, owners of this plantation since 1958, had no intention of giving up the land or the sugar business.

Fernando’s statement contradicts Noynoy’s earlier pronouncement that he would ensure the distribution of the 4,500-hectare plantation to farmer-beneficiaries by June 2014. “I have already talked to my relatives, we are concerned about the welfare of the farmers there and we want to transfer the assets to the farmers,” said Noynoy in a report published by gmanews.tv.

Aquino made the promise at a press conference last month in his family’s ancestral home in Concepcion, Tarlac, which he chose to be the venue of his electoral campaign’s kick-off. “It’s not just a campaign promise, it’s a matter of principle,” Noynoy’s spokesperson Edwin Lacierda even said.

In an interview with the New York Times, meanwhile, Fernando said that "it would be irresponsible [to distribute the land]" because he felt that "continuing what they have is the way to go."

Fernando even dismissed the widely held view that the late President Corazon Cojuangco- Aquino, his aunt, had made land reform a centerpiece of her government.

In a recent report by Inquirer.net, Noynoy did not refute Fernando’s statement but said his family could have earned P3 billion from selling the large sugar plantation.

Aquino said the plantation could have been sold at P4.5 billion, with the real estate price of P100 per square meter, if his family did not care about the farmers and only worried about its interests.

"Our adversary portrays us as being rapacious about the land and we supposedly do not want to let it go but the truth is, if we sell this, which is part of the Agrarian Reform Program, we can sell the 4,500 hectares at P100 per square meter and get around P4.5 billion," Aquino said in an interview on GMA 7’s morning show "Unang Hirit."

Aquino added that selling it would also remove Hacienda Luisita as a thorny "political issue" that has been used against his family since the presidency of his mother.

Mariano said Aquino should stop bragging about the so-called billions that they could have earned from selling the plantation, noting that public money was used by the Cojuangcos to acquire the land.

In August 1957, the Cojuangco family acquired the land through a P5.9 million loan from Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) along with a loan of $2.1 million from Manufacturer's Trust Company of New York and Chase Manhattan Bank in the United States.

The GSIS loan was tied to the condition that in a period of ten years, the land would be distributed to the farmers.

At the Blogwatch forum with Noynoy, the presidential aspirant did not deny the GSIS loan. When asked about the conditions set by the GSIS, Noynoy said: “I was not there.”

Noynoy then said the condition stipulates that the land be given to farmers, not agricultural workers. “They are no longer farmers,” said Noynoy.

In another statement, Atty. Jobert Ilarde Pahilga, executive trustee of Sentro Para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo (SENTRA) and lawyer of the farm workers of the hacienda, said that since the hacienda has been covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), the family of Noynoy could not just sell the land without the consent of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the farm workers. He said the Aquinos would have been paid by the government for its value but they opted to place the same under the Stock Distribution Option (SDO).

The SDO is a non-land transfer program of the CARP of then President Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino. In a SDO, the farmers become stock owners, meaning, they are given rights to purchase capital stocks, equities or shares from the corporate landowners and association.

Pahilga said the SDO scheme only shows that the Cojuangcos have no intention to let go of their control of the land. He added that the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) has already ordered the distribution of the land to the farm workers and the revocation of the SDO, yet the Cojuangco family prevented the implementation of the order by going to the Supreme Court and asking for an injunction.

“Noynoy wants to make it appear that if not for the self-proclaimed benevolence of the Cojuangco-Aquinos, Luisita farmers will have nothing. The Cojuangco-Aquinos cannot reverse the truth, that they have used this so-called ‘benevolence’ as a license to massacre farmers, exploit, and deny them of their rights to the land,” Mariano said, referring to the 2004 massacre that killed 14 farmers.

At the online forum, Pinoyexchange.com, PEX members are also debating on the issue of Hacienda’s land distribution and the article.

Noynoy says report is unfair

In response to the report, Noynoy said the New York Times unfairly misqouted his cousin and said that the Cojuangco family had unanimously decided on drastic changes in the operation of Hacienda Luisita.

He said in a press conference in Naga City yesterday, "It is clear to me and my clan met all the six families composed of my mother and her siblings' families were represented and there was a unanimous decision that we will be at the very minimum changing what is present there."

New York Times correspondent Carlos Conde, in a statement, said, "We stand by our story on Hacienda Luisita. Our interview with Mr. Fernando Cojuangco, COO of the holding company that owns Hacienda Luisita and Central Azucarera de Tarlac, was recorded. If Mr. Cojuangco wishes the recording to be released, we will gladly do so."