** Latest atrocity against farmers proves former president Aquino’s kin still Hacienda Luisita despots.
** Duterte urged to dismantle Cojuangco-Aquino private army in the Tarlac PNP
MANILA, Philippines – The militant Anakpawis Party-list condemned the latest atrocity committed by the Cojuangco-Aquino clan against the farm workers of Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac. Yesterday, crops were destroyed and a farmer’s house was demolished in Brgy. Mapalacsiao. The destruction was ordered by Buena Timbol, a known lackey of the Cojuangcos of the the Luisita Estate Management and the Tarlac Development Corporation. They were assisted by several elements of Tarlac PNP, including members of the Special Weapons Attack Team (SWAT).
“The anti-peasant legacy of Noynoy Aquino’s “daang matuwid” is still very much alive in Hacienda Luisita even as his administration ended a few days ago; through this recent incident, the Cojuangco-Aquinos, their loyal pawns in the Tarlac PNP, and the former president himself are sending a very strong challenge, an insult in fact against the new dispensation’s campagn for meaningful change,” said Anakpawis Party-list Representative Ariel “Ka Ayik” Casilao.
More than 20 hectares of rice crops and vegetables were destroyed by seven tractors, including the house of farmer Gerry Catalan. Catalan together with Leoncio Suarez and other farmers in the village have been tilling in the area since 2005. The eviction and the destruction of properties and livelihood was carried out based on DAR Memorandum dated May 16 issued by Justin Vincent La Chica, the chief-of-staff of former DAR Secretary Virgilio Delos Reyes, prescribing the installation of supposed agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) on the said lands even as other legitimate beneficiaries are already positioned in the area. According to Anakpawis, the conflict is just among the general chaos that the previous DAR had caused its bogus distribution of lands in Hacienda Luisita.
“We have been pushing for a house inquiry since the last Congress into how the DAR under Delos Reyes and Aquino, behind all their rosy press releases, actually circumvented the Supreme Court decision to finally distribute Hacienda Luisita to the farmers through various machinations such as the so-called tambiolo land reform, the illicit promotion of the aryendo or the lease and buy-back system that basically allowed the Cojuangco Aquinos to regain control of the lands that had supposedly been awarded to the farm workers, and the employment of the police and military forces to intimidate and assault the organized ranks of the Luisita communities,” Casilao said.
Former Anakpawis Representative Fernando “Ka Pando” Hicap, filed House Resolution No. 163 in the 16th Congress calling for the said congressional investigation which, according to the militant party-list group, was however blocked by the powerful allies in the lower house of the former Cojuangco-Aquino president. Just last Thursday, an updated version of the said resolution was among the priority measures filed by Casilao in the 17th Congress.
Casilao urged President Rodrigo Duterte to closely examine and immediately do something about the continuing influence and control that the Cojuangco-Aquinos hold over government agencies in Tarlac especially the PNP and the SWAT who carry out various forms of assault against hapless Luisita farmers usually on a Friday or weekend to eliminate the chances of the victims to immediately seek redress in court. He also urged the new chief of the PNP to investigate why Tarlac PNP continues to serve as a private army of the Cojuangco-Aquinos.
“The Cojuangco-Aquinos are far worse than drug lords, they are a feudal lord family, the likes of which have victimized not only individuals but generations after generations of farmers, their crime being the mother of all social crimes and injustice in the country— the bloody, tyrannical monopoly control over vast tracks of land,” Casilao said.
Casilao also said that Aquino’s former alter ego in the DAR, Delos Reyes should not be allowed to simply leave office without answering for the debacle he had left in Hacienda Luisita. Meanwhile, the new DAR Secretary Rafael “Ka Paeng” Mariano, a former Anakpawis solon and long-time defender of Luisita farmers’ rights, vowed to reverse the land distribution hoax carried out by his predecessor in the vast Tarlac estate.