Tarlac police confirm tensions at Hacienda Luisita but no gunshots

MANILA, Philippines — Tarlac City police said Tuesday that there were no gunshots last Sunday after reports of tensions between Hacienda Luisita farmworkers over distributed agrarian land.

 

SPO2 Daniel Bañaga said what was probably heard were the fireworks as there was a festival happening not far from where the tension occurred.

 

On Monday, the Unyon ng mga Mangagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) released a statement reporting of week-long tensions between the group of Lourdes Barangay Captain Edison Diaz and farmer members of the Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang-Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (AMBALA). It said tensions escalated 9 p.m. Sunday after Diaz's group fired gunshots and evicted farmers from their "bungkalan" or land cultivation areas in Barangay Mapalacsiao.

 

The report spread via text message and even reached officials of the Armed Forces as well as former Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) chairman and now Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano, Bañaga said. AMBALA is an organization affiliated with the KMP.

 

The police investigator confirmed that there were tensions last Sunday and on Monday but dismissed claims that there were 100 men led by Diaz and that Barangay Mapalacsiao was under siege.

 

Bañaga said tensions were rooted on disputes over agrarian land awarded by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). 

 

In 2012, the Supreme Court (SC) ordered the distribution of Hacienda Luisita, a prime sugar estate in Tarlac owned by the Cojuangco clan, to farm workers after it earlier declared illegal the stock distribution option implemented in the hacienda during the term of former President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino.

 

Bañaga explained that the constituents of Diaz at Barangay Lourdes, roughly two kilometers away from Barangay Mapalacsiao, are the certificate of land ownership award (CLOA) beneficiaries of the area occupied by AMBALA farmworkers.

 

CLOAs are documents certifying the award of a plot of land to an agrarian reform beneficiary.

 

AMBALA farmers are contesting the controversial raffle scheme conducted by the DAR under then President Benigno Aquino III, a member of the Cojuangco clan, to implement the SC order.

 

The group said it has been cultivating land in different barangays since 2005 "to counter the reconcentration of lands back to landlord control." It alleged that Diaz's group is backed by the Cojuangco clan.

 

Bañaga said the Mapalacsiao farmworkers were also given land but it was too far.

 

"Gusto nila malapit sa lupa nila sa barangay nila," he said.

 

UMA, however, claimed that the action of Diaz defied a status quo order issued by the DAR last July. 

 

Under the order, the DAR has directed the regional DAR director in Central Luzon and the provincial agrarian reform program officer for Tarlac to advise all parties to refrain from committing acts that will cause the "dispossession of farmers currently occupying the land."

 

 

Philstar.com reached out to Mariano but we are yet to receive a response.

 

Meanwhile, Tarlac City police said tensions already subsided on Tuesday.