SC hit over reversal of Luisita payback order

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, Philippines — Militant groups yesterday denounced the Supreme Court (SC) for reversing its earlier decision ordering the Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) to pay P1.3 billion to 6,296 farm workers as their share in the sale of a portion of the property covered by the land reform program. 

The groups said the sudden change in the 2011 decision of the high court was suspicious.

“The original verdict was the aftermath of the  farm workers’ 10-year struggle against the stock distribution option in Hacienda Luisita, and of the court’s arduous deliberations that took about seven years,” Anakpawis party-list Rep. Ariel Casilao said in a statement. 

He said he is dismayed that the high tribunal absolved the HLI of its obligation to compensate the farmers.

“It’s like rubbing salt into the wound, considering that justice has never been rendered to the seven martyrs of the 2004 Hacienda Luisita massacre,” Casilao said. 

Groups such as the Al-yansa ng Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita, Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura and the Sentro para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo issued the same statements. 

Casilao said the Department of Agrarian Reform under the previous Aquino administration rejected the audit firm of the farmers – the Ocampo, Mendoza, Leong, Lim and Co. (OMLL) – and favored the Reyes Tacandong and Co., which was endorsed by the HLI for the computation of the supposed compensation of the farmers. 

“The Supreme Court decided to appoint OMLL in February 2014, but revoked it in December 2016 and appointed Reyes Tacandong and Co. instead,” Casilao said.

The order to pay farmworkers P1.3 billion in shares from the sale of a 580-hectare portion of the Hacienda Luisita was issued by the high court in July 2011.