OUTSIDERS and dummies are on the Department of Agrarian Reform’s list of beneficiaries of the 358-hectare Hacienda Luisita that belongs to the clan of President Benigno Aquino III, according to the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas.
“The President’s kin and the DAR are making a barefaced mockery of the Supreme Court decision,” Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas secretary general Antonio Flores said.
Citing reports from the Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (Ambala), Flores said that out of the over 1,700 potential farmer-beneficiaries listed by the DAR, at least 61 individuals were identified to be from barangays Dolores, Maliwalo, Laoang, Ungot, San Miguel, Maligaya in Tarlac City, Barangay Anupul in Bamban town, and as far as Sta. Veronica in Nueva Ecija—all outside of Hacienda Luisita.
“DAR and the Cojuangcos are at it again,” he added, citing the inclusion of the family’s house help and stable workers by the department in the first “sham” land reform in the 4,099 hectares of Hacienda Luisita where a beneficiary was allotted only 6,600 square meters of land.
“Worse, the 6,600-square meter land is not intact but was dispersed in different locations. This tambiolo land reform in Hacienda Luisita is the height of stupidity. DAR’s distribution scheme is designed to displace the farm workers and divide their ranks. For sure, DAR will once again foolishly divide the 358 hectares to the so-called more than 1,700 beneficiaries.”
He called the Hacienda Luisita’s agrarian reform program a “fake land distribution.”
Because of such, the farmer-beneficiaries become easy prey to dummies of the Cojuangco kin that led to the proliferation of the arriendo system in the hacienda.
Last Dec. 29, DAR posted an announcement and a list of beneficiaries in every barangay of Hacienda Luisita for the 358-hectare land located in Barangays Balete and Cutcut 2nd.
The KMP said the lands were covered by a notice of coverage belatedly issued by DAR on Dec. 17, 2013.
“The Supreme Court in 2012 reiterated and ordered the distribution of all agricultural lands in Hacienda Luisita due to the DAR and the Cojuangcos’ maneuver to evade land distribution through the stock distribution option scheme,” Ambala lawyer Jobert Pahilga said.