SUPREME COURT DECISION ON HACIENDA LUISITA: IMPACT

OR IMPLICATIONS ON AGRARIAN REFORM IN THE

PHILIPPINES
After more than five decades of waiting, the Supreme Court, subsequent to
issuing a temporary restraining order for land distribution, has now given its
verdict on the case of Hacienda Luisita: Distribute the agricultural land to its
tenant farmers. In the decision made by the Supreme Court, the 14 magistrates has
been said to recall and set aside the option of the recipient farmers to remain as
stockholders of Hacienda Luisita. The 6,296 beneficiaries are to be paid with a
total of P1,330,511,500 from the modification and sale of some lands. The former
6,435 hectares of land is now down to 4,334.55 hectares since parts of the land
were converted and sold to industrial companies. Hacienda Luisita became one of
the most long-time controversial issue in the country as it involves the family of
the latest president of the republic of the Philippines, the Cojuangcos. The
decision made by the Supreme Court will put an end to long-bound conflicts
pertaining to land ownership in Hacienda Luisita between the Cojuangcos and its
farmers. The resolution of the supreme court has a great effect on the agrarian
reform in the country to protect the rights of the farmers, provide equal
opportunities for land tiller and owners, to increase employment and to provide
equitable and just assessment for Filipino farmers to alleviate them from poverty.
Hacienda Luisita became a symbol of the current state of agrarian reform in
the Philippines as it concerns the issue of land ownership of small tenant farmers
who work on the haciendas against the wealthy families who own the haciendas
that goes beyond the matter of land rights. It pertains to the matters of who owns
and does not own land, how land is used and who shares in the distribution in the
produce of the land. It has been known that when Hacienda Luisita is handed down
to Jose Pepe Cojuangco by the late president Ramon Magsaysay through a peso
loan from the Government Insurance System and dollar loan to the Manufacturers
Trust Company of New York which was guaranteed by the Central Bank of the
Philippines, it was associated with an important condition that after ten years from
its purchase in 1958, the 6,435 hectare Hacienda Luisita must be given to its small
farmers. However, in 1968, ten years after the agreement, no land was made
available to any tenant farmer or sugar planter in Hacienda Luisita, opposite from
the agreement made. The Hacienda Luisita workers formed union asked for land
distribution but still, no land were distributed and this starts the conflict between
the Hacienda Luisita farmers to own a land, against the Cojuangcos who had the
control over the decades. This has been the face of agrarian reform in the past
years. Agricultural lands are owned by wealthy families without giving
opportunities for small farmers to have their own. Poverty is associated with the
fact that there are only few number of people who control the agricultural lands.
The affluent landlords must share their land to the people that toiled their
haciendas. But with the recent decision of the supreme court, it provided equal
opportunities for small farmers and hacienda owners to own agricultural land. This
shows that equal treatment for every Filipino farmers and their own rights are still
being considered in the legislature of the country which is one of the concerns of
the agrarian reform. This serves as an exemplar that agrarian reform is still being
implemented in the country. Small farmers would have the chance to cultivate their
own land not as tenant farmers but as land owners. Land distribution would be a
great opportunity for the farmer beneficiaries of Hacienda Luisita than the stock
distribution option that has been in placed in 1989 where the beneficiary farmers
could choose between owning pieces of paper from being stockholders that would
never gain control over the current proportion shareholdings or own a piece of
land. Along with the opportunities for farmers, the decision made by the supreme
court shows the right given to each farmers to own a land to work on. The most
recent decision to allocate the land to its farmer beneficiaries made at some way
prove to farmers that agricultural justice is still being provided in the country and
they really fought for something worth all the nuisance and sacrifices that they had
through all these years including those lives that were taken after all the ruckus that
happened way back in 2004 where twelve picketing farmers and two children
were killed and hundreds were injured when police and soldiers sent by the
government blew the besiege of plantation workers while they are in their struggle
to fight for their right to own pieces of land in the hacienda and ask for increase in
salaries and working days but no arrests have still been made regardless of
numerous witness that police, government soldiers and security personnel were
firing into the picket line. In accordance with these issues of opportunities and
rights of farmers, the chance for having great source of income for every
beneficiary farmer is also influenced in the newest decision made, which is also
part of the modifications from the court order that has been handed down by the
supreme court last 2005. If each of the farmers have their lands to work on, they
would have a greater possibility of getting an income that would support the needs
of their family in their daily lives than what they would get from their very low
day-to-day based wages from their few days of work before, that is actually behind
the actual cost of living nowadays. The increased benefits for the concerned
farmers were also included in the amendments made in the new decision. The
recent assessment of the supreme court to the case of Hacienda Luisita also
included that the beneficiary farmers must be paid a certain amount for the three
percent share in the proceeds of the sale of the 500-hectare converted land and the
80.51-hectare Subic-Clark-Tarlac-Expressway (SCTEX) lot and the home lots
received by the 10,502 beneficiaries (both 6,296 original beneficiaries and the
4,206 non-qualified beneficiaries) "shall be respected with no obligation to refund
or return them. This resolution has enacted an aspect of agrarian reform to
distribute the share in the productivity of land between the land owners and land
tenants. Whenever landlords gained a revenue from the production of land, they
must share it to their small farmers to provide just and fair treatment for land for
land owners and land workers.
Agrarian reform concerns to protect the right of each and every Filipino
farmers together with the relation between production and distribution of land.
The Hacienda Luisita controversy has been an ordeal for the agrarian reform in the
Philippines regarding the issue of land rights and beyond, between the concern
farmers and the Cojuangcos. It has been a bitter struggle for the farmers as they go
on their journey for their right to own a piece of land which represents the fight for
right of every Filipino farmer in relation to issues of land ownership and
distribution. The decision of the supreme court does not only affect the farmers of
Hacienda Luisita but the current agrarian reform implemented in the Philippines as
a whole because the judgment voiced out the unheard voices of every farmer
against those landlord who wont give the right to their small farmers to own a land
and their chance of getting the rightful benefit that must be given to them. The
Hacienda Luisita farmers had victory on their side with the decision of the supreme
court to distribute the land of Hacienda Luisita to its small farmers along with
every Filipino farmers who believes in an existing agrarian reform being
implemented in our own nation.

References:
o http://www.economywatch.com/agrarian/
o http://opinion.inquirer.net/17987/sc%E2%80%99s-downslide-and-verdict-
on-hacienda-luisita
o http://opinion.inquirer.net/tag/stock-distribution-option
o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gevTmyWtHVo
o http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/239494/news/nation/supreme-
court-orders-hacienda-luisita-to-distribute-land-to-farmers
o http://www.wikipedia.com/haciendaluisita