CLASHES

The first round of skirmishes between the rallyists and lawmen took place at around 6 p.m. Saturday at the Gate 1 of this sprawling estate’s sugar refinery.

Rally leaders claimed that the policemen started the row when they tried to breakup the human barricade setup by the protesters using wicker sticks and water canons.

Then before the break of dawn Sunday, another round of battle between the two sides ensued, also at the same location, even as the Armed Forces’ Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom), whose headquarters in Camp Gen. Servillano Aquino is located adjacent to this sugar plantation, then deployed here a number of soldiers from the Army’s 69th Infantry Battalion.

Protest leader Rene Galang, who was among the 327 farmworkers laid off by the Hacienda Luisita, Inc. (HLI) last October and subsequently ousted as president of the United Luisita Workers’ Union (UWLU), said it was the government elements who started the on-and-off brawls.

But according to Lt. Col. Preme Monta, spokesman for the Nolcom, the rallyists twice tried to barge through the police “line of defense,” and that some among the protesters allegedly pelted stones as well as teargas.

According to him, the anti-riot lawmen, dispatched by Tarlac City police chief, Superintendent Rudy Lacadin, were maintaining the “first line of defense,” while the 69th IB soldiers only served as a “backup force.”

Monta added that while the troops were under strict instructions from Nolcom commander, Lt. Gen. Romeo Dominguez, to observe “maximum tolerance” and to “smile even when being stoned,” they have to help policemen in pushing back the protesters in order for the HLI to be able to open up its factory and resume its refinery’s operations.

He explained that while it was the rallyists’ right to stage protests for redress of grievances, “it is in line with the duty and mission of the AFP to protect companies that contribute to the country’s economy.”

SHUTDOWN

It was around noontime Saturday when around 20 members of the Central Azucarera de Tarlac Labor Union (CATLU) who were manning the boiler division of this estate’s sugar refinery abandoned their posts, and with the help of militant activists, barricaded the factory’s Gate 2.

Without them, the factory had to be shut down, because it is the boiler that provides steam for the refinery to produce sugar.

ULWU members, also reinforced by militants, simultaneously blocked the Gate 1.

The CATLU represents the about 700 factory workers in this sugar estate, while the ULWU is the recognized group of the more than 5,000 farmworkers here being regarded as “co-shareholders” of former President Corazon Aquino’s family in the HLI under the stock distribution scheme of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

Management has reached a deadlock in its collective bargaining agreement (CBA) talks with the CATLU, which has been demanding a P100-wage hike and a P30,000-signing bonus for each of its members. The firm said that it can only provide a P12-salary increase and a P12,000-bonus.

ULWU, on the other hand, was asking for the reinstatement of the recently retrenched farmworkers, that included Galang, its vice president, Ildefonso Pingul, and eight other union officers.

SUGARCANE FIELD RAZED

Meanwhile, the management said that some 20 hectares of this estate’s sugarcane fields in Barangay Murcia in Concepcion town was set on fire an hour before the mass actions started last Saturday.

According to Monta, investigations carried out by Nolcom have it that witnesses saw “several armed men,” believed to be guerillas of the communist-led New People’s Army (NPA), in the area before the fire broke out.

It is for this reason that the Nolcom acceded to a request by the HLI for the reinforcement of policemen with soldiers, even as Monta revealed that Dominguez also ordered the deployment here of elements from the AFP’s Civil Disturbance Unit.

The Nolcom spokesman further revealed that, based on an initial assessments done by the Nolcom on the situation here, the rallyists, especially the militants, were “prepared for violent actions.”

DEMANDS ARE 'SIMPLE'

Meanwhile, Galang stated to the media here that their demands from Mrs. Aquino’s family were “simple,” which included their return to their previous jobs, including the reinstatement of their land reform benefits under the CARP’s stock option scheme, and for the resumption of ULWU’s CBA talks, which were stalled with their being laid off.

Galang has vowed that the rallyists will continue to lock up the sugar refinery here “indefinitely” if their demands are not met.

He further disclosed that this Monday, hundreds of farmworkers here will march to the downtown area of Tarlac City to dramatize their protests. Their activity will coincide with the scheduled transport strike in the province, including those in Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Bulacan and Pangasinan, against the series of oil price hikes.

CONFUSED

Meanwhile, it was gathered that the CATLU’s membership was confused with what course their president, Ric Ramos, was taking in the CBA deadlock and the mass actions.

For while Ramos has denied any hand in the factory walkout from the boiler division, he was reportedly seen in the picketline at the Gate 1 with Tarlac City councilor Abel Ladera, a resident of Barangay Balete here who is also affiliated with the Left-leaning party-list group, Bayan Muna.

Also supporting the protesters were activists from the party-list group Anakpawis, and the radical groups, Nagkakaisang Manggagawa ng Tarlac-Kilusang Mayo Uno (NMT-KMU), Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Tarlac-Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (AMT-KMP), Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan-Tarlac), League of Filipino Students (LFS) and Alyansa ng Nagkakaisang Kabataan para sa Bayan (Anakbayan).

This, even as management revealed that it was preparing to file charges against the CATLU members who joined the mass action, saying that it was “illegal” because the union did not conduct a “strike vote.”

SUGAR PRODUCTION AFFECTED

The sudden shut down of the sugar factory here, the biggest in Luzon, came as sugarcane planters here in Tarlac, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga and elsewhere in Central and Northern Luzon were bringing their harvest to the refinery here for this year’s milling season.

This, even as the HLI has been claiming to have sustained operational losses amounting to P215.11 million in 2002 and P165.49 million last year.

This sugar estate has been long a hotbed of agrarian unrest that dates back to the 1950s during the height of the “Huk rebellion” waged by the old Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP), the precursor of the NPA’s mother unit, the underground Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).