Manila: Police began a probe on the burning of a 300-hectare portion of the Hacienda Luisita in central Luzon, according to a newspaper report.
Hacienda Luisita is a 4,000-hectare sugar plantation owned by the family of President Benigno Aquino, which the Supreme Court had ordered to be distributed to some 6,000 registered farm workers.
Some 30 members of the Alliance of Farmers of Hacienda Luisita (Ambala), led by Ambala's leader and four other village councilmen, allegedly set to fire to a portion of the sugar plantation in village Balete in Tarlac last week.
According to reports, the fire was put out within 24 hours, but not before causing damage to sugar plants worth at least 1 million pesos (Dh85,470).
Mabilog village resident and Concepcion town councilman Felix Nacpil and Balete village councilmen Leonila Halili, Hilario Hipolito, Pual Mallari and Dominador Salian are suspected of starting the fire in lots being leased by Hacinda Luisita Inc. to independent sugar farm planters.
Hacienda Luisita Independent Planters Association, Azucal Inc and other farmers of Sugarcane Farming Agricultural Corp. have lodged a complaint.
Prior to the incident, Tarlac Governor Victor Yap and other local government leaders met on December 15 with officers of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in connection with the request of independent sugar farm planters for police protection.
The independent sugar farm planters who are leasing part of the Hacienda Luisita said that people claiming to be sugar farm workers have tried to take control of some portions of the hacienda, adding they have also destroyed newly planted crops.
They also asked for guidelines on land distribution and on who be awarded with lands
Meanwhile, on December 20, owners of the Hacienda Luisita asked the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision on the 1989 valuation of the land to be paid to them by the government in exchange for the distribution of the farm to sugar farmers.
The just compensation of the properties to be distributed to the farmers should be based on the prices of real estate properties in 2006, owners of the sugar plantation said. The amount should also be decided by the Land Bank of the Philippines and the Department of Agrarian Reform, they added.
It was in response to the November 22 ruling of the Apex Court which upheld the decision of former president Gloria Arroyo in 2005, as then head of the Presidential Agrarian Reform Court, that owners of the Hacienda Luisita should distribute the 4,915.75 hectares to some 6,000 registered workers.
