Manila: Majority of Supreme Court justices voted that the family of President Benigno Aquino should distribute lands to 6,296 farmers who have worked for five decades at the sprawling Hacienda Luisita, a sugar plantation in central Luzon, sources told Gulf News.
Fourteen of the 15 Apex Court justices agreed to the petition filed by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) at the Supreme Court last July 22, to uphold the decision of former President Gloria Arroyo in 2005 as Parc's head, that land should be given to the farmers of the Hacienda Luisita in Concepcion, Tarlac, after they have opted to revoke the stock distribution option (SDO) that was offered to and accepted by 93 per cent of them in a referendum in 1989, a court source said.
In 2005, Parc sided with 6,296 farmers who complained to the department of agrarian reform, that the SDO failed to improve their lives.
The High Court also gave credence to the July 22 petition of DAR and Parc that the Supreme Court should no longer allow a secret referendum for the farmers to decide whether they still like to hold on to their Hacienda Luisita stocks.
"Upon review of the facts and circumstances, we realise that the farm-worker-beneficiaries [of Hacienda Luisita Inc or HLI] will never have control over these agricultural lands for as long as they remain stockholders of HLI," said the 56-page resolution that was penned by Justice Presbitero Velasco, promulgated on Wednesday, and released yesterday.
The Supreme Court also asked the Hacienda Luisita to pay 1.3 billion pesos (Dh108 million) to the farmers for earlier sale of three large parcels of land at the sugar plantation.
Formerly 6,435 hectare-wide, Hacienda Luisita shrank to 4,334.55 hectares as industrial companies bought prime portions of the sugar plantation.
It is controlled by the family of Aquino's late mother, former President Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino.
In response to the Supreme Court ruling, Virginia "Inyang" Paligutan, 80, led members of the Alliance of Hacienda Luisita Farmers (Ambala) in a march at the High Court's office in Manila. "President Aquino and the Cojuangco-Aquino clan must respect and comply with the High Court's decision," said Congressman Rafael Mariano of militant Children of Sweat.
"It was a long-awaited decision," said Fr. Edu Gariguez, exectuve secretary of the National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace [Nassa] of the influential Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines.
"The Supreme Court's decision was a test case in the country's agrarian reform, a victory for Filipino farmers," said Anakbayan, a militant group.
