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By Ira Karen Apanay, Senior
Reporter
The Department of Agrarian Reform
was ready to distribute the land occupied by Hacienda Luisita any
time the Cojuangco family decides to give up the vast sugar estate
in Tarlac province, Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman
said Monday.
“The Department of Agrarian
Reform [DAR] is ready to distribute to qualified beneficiaries the
said landholding any time the Cojuangco family decides to abandon
its stakes at the 5,000-hectare sugarcane plantation,” he added.
He made the statement in reaction
to presidential aspirant Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino 3rd
suggesting to his family to leave Hacienda Luisita because of
continuing labor problems there.
Aquino said that his family had
incurred a large debt as a result of the labor disputes and was
expecting these troubles to continue if it did not relinquish
control of the sugarcane plantation.
Pangandaman said that his
department was about to distribute the land to qualified
beneficiaries in 2006 when the Supreme Court issued at the last
minute a temporary restraining order (TRO), enjoining his office
from doing so.
“We were almost at the tail-end
of processing the distribution of the said property when the Supreme
Court-issued TRO came. The farmer-beneficiaries were already
identified, the [certificates of land ownership] were already
available for distribution and the schedule for distributing them
was already set then,” he added.
Pangandaman advised Senator
Aquino to withdraw his family’s petition for a preliminary writ of
injunction filed before the Supreme Court, which led to the issuance
of the restraining order, “if he is true to his words.”
Controversial case
Hacienda Luisita became
controversial after late former President Corazon “Cory”
Cojuangco-Aquino spared it from her administration’s centerpiece
program, the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), and,
instead, decided on stock distribution option, or SDO.
In 2006, the Presidential
Agrarian Reform Council (PARC), the highest policy-making body on
agrarian reform, revoked Hacienda Luisita’s stock distribution
option, a move considered by many as Malacañang’s reprisal
against the former president for joining calls for the resignation
of President Gloria Arroyo.
The council’s decision is on
appeal before the Supreme Court.
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