The group said the DAR is continuously pushing the two audit firms that have previous link to the Cojuangco’s HLI to participate in its de facto bidding procedure.
In a statement, Anakpawis party-list vice chairman Fernando Hicap said the DAR is extending its “power trip” up to the point that it is meddling on the ongoing process to choose an independent audit firm to look into HLI records.
Such records supposedly pertain to the P1.33 billion HLI owes to farm worker beneficiaries for the selling of more than 500 hectares of land parcel to Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) and North Luzon Expressway (Nlex) management.
“Despite the resounding and majority decision of parties involved in the auditing process namely the Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa loob ng Asyenda Luisita, 1989 Original Farmer Beneficiaries, Farmers for Agrarian Reform Movement, Inc., Luisita Supervisory Union of Hacienda Luisita Inc., the United Luisita Workers Union, and by Mr. Noel Mallari to get the Ocampo, Mendoza, Leung, Lim and Co. service to look into HLI’s records.
DAR quickly rejected the groups’ position and maintained that the Reyes-Tacandong and Co and the KPMG with a local counterpart Manabat Sanagustin and Co. — two firms that previously audited HLI — can apply for the job” Hicap said.
Anakpawis said the move by the DAR to bypass the decision of the majority of the stakeholders is beyond its mandate and runs counter with the farm workers interest.
“It is not only DAR delaying the process but its also making the beneficiaries powerless. The DAR once again shows its brazen arrogance and contempt over their clients’ prerogative. It is an abuse of their mandate,” the group said.
But the activist party-list group expressed optimism the auditing process will be convincing and acceptable to involved parties if DAR should end its politicking and keep HLI out of the picture.
“Clearly, the Cojuangco-led HLI dictates the phase of the audit process. DAR was merely their instrument to legitimize its part on the auditing despite it is the one subjected for financial scrutiny. Just like their maneuvers on the distribution process. This is their gameplan to deliberately mislead the process to prolong the audit because the president and his relatives have no plans to open HLI books of records unless it is done by no other than their trusted cohorts inside the Reyes-Tacandong and KPMG to absolve them on paying the P1.33 billion they owed to the farm worker beneficiaries. HLI and its audit firm cohorts should be banned from the process,” Hicap said.
Dubbed as “Lakbayan para sa Libreng Pamamahagi ng Lupa sa Hacienda Luisita,” the activity marks the first year of the Supreme Court decision ordering the distribution of some 6,000-hectare sugar plantation controlled by the family of President Aquino.
Led by the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura UMA, Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (Ambala) and the United Luisita Workers Union (ULWU), the farmers started their march from Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac province.
As of yesterday afternoon, the marchers have reached San Nicolas Church in Capas, Tarlac.
They were expected to arrive and spend the night in Angeles City in Pampanga.
“It has been a year since the Supreme Court decided to distribute the Hacienda and we are back on the streets to continue our fight for the free distribution of lands,” ULWU chairman Lito Bais said in a statement.
In the same vein, Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano said, “There is no truth to the Department of Agrarian Reform’s claim that the distribution of Hacienda Luisita is on track. Twelve months after the SC decision, farmworker-beneficiaries are still waiting in vain to own the lands that they have tilled for decades.”
The DAR is mandated to implement the high court decision, released in February, the final list of beneficiaries.
A week after, Agrarian Reform Sec.Virgilio delos Reyes said farm workers will not get any land if they will not sign a written commitment to pay for the land and to make it productive.
“As long as Aquino controls the DAR and the sham Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program remains, the farm workers should be ready for another protracted battle to reclaim Hacienda Luisita from the Cojuangcos,” KMP deputy sec. gen. Willy Marbella said.
The famers also challenged senatorial candidates to replace the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) with “a new and genuine agrarian reform law to realize the free distribution of Hacienda Luisita.”
He maintained that “the CARP was crafted by the Cojuangcos” to evade the distribution of the sugar plantation to its farm workers.
In 1989, during the administration of the late president Corazon Aquino, the Cojuangcos made use of the stock distribution option scheme of the CARP to evade actual land distribution.”
“Today, the Cojuangcos are making use of the provisions of the CARP to deny the farm workers of their hard-earned legal victory,” Marbella said.
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