MANILA STANDARD ON HACIENDA LUISITA

Luisita terror tactics blasted

By Fred Villareal | Posted 4 hours ago | 169 views

Angeles City — A farmers’ group  belonging to Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon on Saturday condemned the alleged assault by the Tarlac Development Corporation against the Alyansa ng Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita.
The AMGL  in a statement said that   when the Department of Agrarian Reform  began the raffle-distribution of certificate of land ownership awards since October, Tadeco and another corporation, Luisita Realty Corp built fences around the 100-hectare land in Barangay Cutcut and about 400 hectares in Barangay Balete and recently last October 31.  AMBALA’s Dennis Dela Cruz who actively worked at a ‘Bungkalan’ (cultivation) site was murdered in Balete.

 Joseph Canlas, AMGL chairperson said, “Hacienda Luisita is under a reign of terror, perpetrated by the hacienda ownes led by the family of President Benigno Aquino III .  “They have sabotaged the Supreme Court decision to distribute the lands by using the anti-farm workers’ schemes implemented by DAR, and now an AMBALA leader was mercilessly killed,” Canlas said.
The AMBALA, a farm workers’ alliance and AMGL chapter in Luisita expressed belief that the murder of Dela Cruz is connected to the land issue as he was a staunch activist working with the ‘Bungkalan’ campaign, and was threatened by TADECO security guards last September.
The group in a statement said that it was to terrorize the farm workers who are fighting for their right to own land.

 The AMBALA   earlier reported that military deployment in Hacienda Luisita had intensified as at least four military tanks were sighted to have entered the estate.
“The Aquino government deployed many elements of the police and military during the so-called CLOA  distribution by DAR, to subvert the protest of the farm workers.  Now they are actually sending in more forces to intimidate the unarmed farm workers,” Canlas said.

 `The AMGL stated that the Cojuangco-Aquino family is firm in keeping control over Hacienda Luisita as it would bring them billions of profit.  Agricultural land valuation around the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) and Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEx) ranges from P1 million to P6 million per hectare or P100 per square meter to P600 per square meter, thus, the the Hacienda land was reclassified as the Cojuangco-Aquino family prepared in the land use plan furnished by the Luisita Realty Corp. in 1998.
Canlas, also a fourth nominee of the Party List AnakPawis charged that, “the Cojuangco-Aquinos are notorious in attacking the farm workers. The estate was under martial law during the Marcos dictatorship, de-facto martial law before and after the Hacienda Luisita massacre in 2009, the Oplan Bantay Laya is in full effect.”
Canlas noted that  “it is like a time-space warp inside Hacienda Luisita where you would feel like the Spanish colonization of the country continuously unfolding and ‘hacenderos’ ruling with ‘whips and iron-fist, slaughtering those who oppose them.”