‘Luisita farmers to get share after signing promissory note’

MANILA, Philippines - Farmer-beneficiaries of the land distribution program for Hacienda Luisita will only get their share after signing a written commitment to pay for the lands and make them productive, Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes said yesterday.

“If they will not promise such things to happen, then no land will be awarded to them,” De los Reyes explained.

More than 6,200 farmers are in the official list of beneficiaries of the land distribution scheme for Hacienda Luisita, originally owned by the family of President Aquino.

De los Reyes said that in the next two weeks, Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) personnel will go back to the 10 barangays in Hacienda Luisita to talk to farmer-beneficiaries and make them sign “application to purchase” and “farmers’ undertaking” of responsibility to develop the land they receive. He said the farmers would have to state what crops they intend to plant and on which part of the hacienda.

“Those are still part of the identification process. The segregation survey should also begin as we need to check what are the common areas – those which are part of the lands that will be distributed but will not be cultivated and will serve the purpose of all the beneficiaries such as roads, canals and the irrigation areas,” De los Reyes said. “After which we’ll be able to determine the exact land area to be distributed.”

DAR estimates more than 4,300 hectares of Hacienda Luisita lands are up for distribution. Each farmer is expected to receive 5.6 to six hectare each.

The agency also expressed optimism that it would be able to complete the distribution by May or June.

“The Landbank of the Philippines will recommend to DAR the amount that will be paid the landowner,” he added.

The final list of beneficiaries was drawn up in accordance with a Supreme Court directive that only farm workers employed by the hacienda through Luisita Tarlac Development Corp. as of 1989 would qualify as beneficiaries.