More than 150 peasants and farmworkers from Hacienda Luisita, Tarlac protested at the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Quezon City on January 26 to denounce its long-delayed land distribution and the landgrabbing by bourgeois compradors. They strongly condemned the large-scale land-use conversion, fascism, and militarization inside the hacienda.
The Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (AMBALA, or Alliance of Hacienda Luisita Farmworkers) and the Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA, or Union of Agricultural Farmworkers) led the protest.
“The Supreme Court decided as early as 2012 to distribute nearly 4,915.75 hectares of the hacienda,” AMBALA vice president Leonarda “Ka Leoning” Trinidad said. “Nearly 14 years later, will DAR remain the landgrabbers’ tool?”
She assailed the plan of the Cojuangco-Aquino-Lorenzo clan and giant corporations Aboitiz and Ayala to seize the land and dedicate it to a so-called “Master Plan” that will benefit only a few. Under this “master plan,” Ayala Land and Avida Land will build commercial structures and facilities such as parks, roads, and housing projects on 290 hectares of agricultural land. Meanwhile, the Aboitiz Group will take over 384 hectares for so-called “industrial” and commercial use.
“Ayala Land and Aboitiz Group are vultures preying on the hardship of the peasants of Luisita,” UMA’s Ariel “Ka Ayik” Casilao said.
“The US-Marcos Jr regime and its landlord-comprador allies trample not only on our right to land,” Casilao said. “In militarizing, they also trample on the people’s rights to organize, speak, and protest.”
“The looming conversions to non-agricultural use are just the latest landgrabbing crimes against us peasants,” Ka Leoning said. “Even the old issues of land seizure in Luisita continue to this day.”
