Hacienda Luisita conflict tests P-Noy’s mettle

BY Mariano A. Santos
Publisher/Editor

P-Noy’s utterances on the Hacienda Luisita conflict leave many wondering on his sincerity to liberate millions of Filipinos from the shackle of poverty. President Aquino said that he is leaving the issue to the Supreme Court and his spokespersons are shielding him from the press despite his promise of transparency.

Hacienda Luisita is a vast agricultural estate that occupies most of the towns of Concepcion, San Miguel, La Paz and a good portion of Tarlac City. P-Noy’s maternal relatives, the Cojuangco clan, took over the 6,400-hectare property in 1958 from Tabacalera which the Lopez family had owned since 1882. The peasant uprising of the 1950s was said to be a big factor in the change of ownership. The Cojuangcos acquired the hacienda through a blended loan from the Government Security and Insurance System and a New York Bank.

The hacienda has a sugar mill that processed the sugar canes harvested from the land. In recent years a hotel and a golf course were added.  There are 10,000 persons who live in the estate which is as big as the cities of Makati and Pasig combined.

When Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino became President of the Philippines in 1986, agrarian reform was one of the major pillars of her program to help peasants freed from the stranglehold of feudalism. In one of her public speeches, she categorically said that Hacienda Luisita would be included in the list of large agricultural holdings to be expropriated to farmers who till the land.

Her husband, then Sen. Benigno S. Aquino, Jr., sold their share of ownership of the hacienda but the share of their son Noynoy stayed with him. P-Noy said recently that his holding is a paltry one percent of the total ownership. The Cory Presidency had ended with the Hacienda Luisita remaining in the hands of the Cojuangcos.

2004 Massacre
In 1988, the peasants were offered stocks instead of the land. The situation in the Hacienda became volatile and in 2004, a bloody confrontation between the protesting farmers and their supporters and the owners’ private army resulted in the massacre of 14 persons. The conflict escalated once again recently.  The Cojuangcos insist on buying out the peasants stocks for a price that hardly each farmer one a meal at “Cabalen” Buffet Restaurant.

The farmers group and their supporters petitioned the court to void the settlement and insisted on following the agrarian reform’s edict to distribute the land to the farmers and the Cojuangcos getting compensated in the process.  Not the other way around, as it is happening now.

Inquirer’s news analyst, Amada Doronila, correctly wrote in his column that this is the first true test of P-Noy’s social commitment to eradicate poverty in the Philippines. I agree that the People Power that propelled P-Noy’s mother to the highest position of the Philippines was reduced to empty symbolism and lost opportunities because no substantial program was implemented to reduce poverty.  In fact, corruption became prevalent and the “Kamaganaks, Inc”—or Cory’s relatives were left freely indulging in unmitigated enterprise of enriching themselves further at the expense of the suffering masses.

Wink-wink
Contrary to the common perception that P-Noy’s big win is purely a people’s crusade to install a righteous man in Malacanang Palace, it is easy to check on who poured hundred of millions in Noynoy’s presidential campaign. It should not surprise anyone to know that the Cojuangcos comprise the top donors. While Gibo Teodoro is smarter of the two Cojuangcos vying for the presidency, the rest of the Cojuangcos are as smart as well but definitely are practical oligarchs.  They know exactly where to place their bet to be sure their interest is protected.

In the last elections, the emotional voters who got singed by Cory and Erap just cannot go past their illusions and myths. They made Noynoy the man to beat.  The Cojuangcos took note and decided they can live with that.  In fact the Cojuangcos can hack it out in any political regime. Luisita was acquired during the graft-ridden Carlos P. Garcia presidency. Danding prospered during the Marcos Dictatorship. Peping in Cory’s. Danding took Erap under his wing and bet right, again. And now P-Noy.  Cojuangcos are not just lucky.  They are smart, in a wink-wink way.

In fairness, one must qualify that Cory Aquino did not personally benefit in any scandal involving graft and corruption in her six years as president. But that was small consolation.  The People Power armed Cory with tremendous political equity to move the country away from the legacy of the evil triumvirate of feudalism, fascism and imperialism that made the country backward and poor. Tragically, she wasted that asset.

She paid lip service to agrarian reform and let feudal landowners continue to lord it over the millions of landless farmers. In 1984, she was one of the conveners of nationalist leaders who met in Hong Kong to draw out a people’s program to correct the disastrous effects of the Marcos Dictatorship and decades of semi-colonial regimes.  Nationalist leaders like Lorenzo Tanada, Jose W. Diokno and Jovito Salonga were some of the signatories.

September 16, 1991
One of their valid demands was an end to the US_RP Bases Treaty that was proven to be a strong link to the perpetuation of the martial rule of Marcos and to its continuing negative influence in the socio-economic growth of the  Philippines.  Since 1946, the US Bases tied up hundred thousands of hectares of prime land and port facilities in exchange for an inequitable rent. And this is not to forget its adverse impact on the psyche of a young and struggling nation.  In other words, the US through its leases on the bases fostered a culture of dependency on the Filipinos and their leaders.

Tragically, President Cory and her defense secretary, Fidel Ramos, left no stone unturned in pressuring the members of the Philippine Senate– the government unit that has the power to make treaties to extend the lease of the US Bases in direct violation of the 1984 conveners’ agreement. While Cory got her marching order from the US Embassy, twelve senators led by then Senate President Jovito R. Salonga prevailed on Sept. 16, 1991with their courageous act to abrogate the onerous treaty. Their action liberated Subic Bay, Clark Air Base and land from 35 other US Military installations all over the Philippines.

(The other heroic senators who voted with Senate President Salonga were Senators Butz Aquino, Erap Estrada, Juan P. Enrile, Teofisto Guingona Jr., Sotero Laurel, Ernesto Maceda, Nene Pimentel, Santanina Razul, Rene Saguisag, Wigberto Tanada and  Victor Ziga.)

President Cory Aquino got even. She successfully conspired to oust Salonga as Senate President and was replaced by her ally Neptali Gonzales who voted for the retention of the bases.  To further humiliate Salonga, she would throw her full   to her husband’s former jailer, Gen. Fidel Ramos who won the presidency and became her successor in 1992. In that year’s elections, her wrath focused on Salonga who like Noynoy ran as the Liberal Party presidential nominee.

To her subtle delight. Salonga wound up behind Imelda Marcos in the resultof the presidential race. Ironically, Salonga was one of Ninoy Aquino’s lawyers during his nine years of incarceration in Marcos concentration camp where Gen. Ramos acted as the dictator’s warden until Ramos turned against his Uncle Ferdinand in February of 1986.

Philippine politics is replete with back-stabbings, paradoxes and Machiavellians conspiracies.  The seemingly saintly Cory–bless her soul–is an apt player. To Salonga’s credit, his group’s act of courage moved the country closer to true independence.  The doom that Cory and her supporters predicted if the US military left the bases never happened.  Instead, Subic and Clark are now hubs of economic activities.  Tourism, environmentalism and housing development are thriving.  Dick Gordon who passionately worked for the retention of the bases to protect the brothels of Olongapo benefited for many years as head of the Subic Bay Development Authority.

This month, being September, is a good time to recall a bright shining moment in our modern history in which the celebrated Cory Aquino came short of her faith in the Filipino people. On September 16, 1991, the Philippine Senate acted correctly as a true independent branch of the government—filling the gaps that other branches created.

As now in the case of Hacienda Luisita, the recent victorious Noynoy should learn from the unfortunate lessons of his mother’s presidency.  Armed with a mandate from the Filipino voters, Noynoy should be true to his words that he will liberate the Filipinos from stark poverty. He should use his political equity to the best interest of the country.

Noynoy has now the rare opportunity to lead with courage and dispatch.  By taking the cudgel of the poor peasants of the expansive Hacienda Luisita that they tilled for generations, P-Noy is letting the important message to sink in the hearts and minds of his suffering countrymen that, indeed, he is for real.