HACIENDA LUISITA — While milling operations in this sugar
central were resumed back to “normal” late last Monday,
sugarcane planters have opted to transport their harvests instead
to a small sugar refinery in Pampanga due to “guerilla-style”
harassments being carried out by militants on their trucks and
personnel.
The management of the Hacienda Luisita, Inc. (HLI)
and the Central Azucarera de Tarlac (CAT) disclosed on Tuesday
morning that most of the sugarcane planters here in Tarlac, as
well as in Pampanga, Nueva Ecija and Pangasinan, and those
elsewhere in Central and Northern Luzon, have expressed fear of
more losses after some of the protesters who locked out the
refinery here during the weekend turned “more violent and
destructive.”
The HLI is the corporate farming firm
established here in the late 1980s that oversees all of the
operations in the 6,000-hectare estate, and “co-owned” by the
family of former President Corazon Aquino and their more than
5,000 farmworkers who are land reform beneficiaries under the
stock distribution option of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform
Program (CARP).
The CAT, on the other hand, is the firm that
operates the sugar mill here.
The milling operations here were shutdown
around noontime last Saturday after more than 20 members of the
CAT Labor Union (CATLU) manning the boiler division walked out of
their posts and barricade the factory’s Gate 2. Without the
steam from the boiler, the refinery could not produce sugar.
Members of the United Luisita Workers’ Union
(ULWU) then simultaneously blocked the factory’s Gate 1.
The CATLU represents the 768 workforce of the
refinery, while the ULWU is the recognized labor group of the
farmworkers.
An hour before the mass actions – which was
reinforced by militants from the radical groups Bayan Muna,
Anakpawis, Nagkakaisang Manggagawa ng Tarlac (NMT), Alyansa ng
Magbubukid sa Tarlac (NMT), League of Filipino Students and
Anakbayan – some 20 hectares of sugarcane field in Barangay
Murcia in Concepcion town, which is also within this sprawling
estate, were set on fire by armed men suspected of being guerillas
of the communist-led New People’s Army (NPA).
TRUCK TIRES DEFLATED
According to management officials, shortly
after the mill’s operations were resumed last Monday, a number
of trucks loaded with newly-cut sugarcane sticks being transported
to the sugar refinery here were waylaid by some of the protesters
and punctured the vehicles’ tires with pointed objects.
They said that even during the height of the
mass actions last Saturday and Sunday, the tires of sugarcane
trucks that were stranded along the road leading to the refinery
were similarly deflated.
Because of this, sugarcane planters and owners
of the trucks have decided to instead bring their harvests to the
Sweet Crystals Integrated Sugar Mills Corp., a small refinery
located in Barangay Planas in Porac town, Pampanga.
Management said that the affected sugarcane
planters fear that “trouble-makers” may set some of the trucks
on fire, although it assured that the CAT’s milling operations
were indeed already “back to normal.”
Related to this, some protesters backed by
activists also reportedly setup a “checkpoint” along a portion
of this estate’s main road in Barangay Balete, where some
factory employees intending to go to work were allegedly being
turned away.
Because of these incidents, the HLI’s private
security force had to deploy some of its personnel to escort
workers and sugarcane trucks going to and from the sugar refinery.
Management has claimed that majority of the
CATLU members wanted to report for work, even as they were
demanding from their president, Ricardo Ramos, clarification on
their group’s stand on the mass actions.
Although Ramos reportedly denied having any
knowledge about the protest actions, he was seen to be among the
ULWU protesters.
SOLDIERS WITHDRAW
Despite these developments, the Armed Forces’
Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) decided to withdraw soldiers from
the Army’s 69th Infantry Battalion back to their barracks, even
as the regional police office in Camp Olivas in the City of San
Fernando, Pampanga also pulled out the reinforcements it earlier
dispatched.
Lt. Col. Preme Monta, Nolcom spokesman, said
they have assessed that the hostilities caused by the mass actions
staged by some members of the CATLU and the ULWU have “already
subsided.”
Monta added that Nolcom commanding officer, Lt.
Gen. Romeo Dominguez, even ordered for the withdrawal from this
estate of the AFP’s Civil Disturbance Unit.
Monta said that about 50 policemen from the
province remained stationed here to provide backup to the
management’s security force, while 69th IB soldiers had to
maintain “alert status” in one of their detachments in this
plantation.
ONLY A PICKET?
Rene Galang, who was among the 327 farmworkers
laid off last October by the HLI and subsequently ousted as ULWU
president, said that they will continue to hold their protest
activities, which he claimed were only limited to setting up a
picket near the factory’s Gate 1.
The HLI has refused to recognize Galang’s
leadership in the ULWU, as he was already replaced last month by
Ronaldo Alcantara following his ouster, and that of nine other
union officials.
CATLU has been on a deadlock in its collective
bargaining agreement (CBA) talks with the CAT, as the union was
demanding for a P100 wage hike and P30,000 signing bonus for each
of its members. Management said that it can only provide a P12
salary increase and a P12,000 bonus.
CATLU did file a notice of strike prior to the
mass action, but this was not subjected to a vote among its
members, claimed the management.
Management said that charges are being prepared
to be filed against the CATLU members who joined the mass actions.
CLASHES
At least two rounds of skirmishes between the
rallyists and anti-riot policemen took place during the weekend,
the first at around 6 p.m. Saturday, while the second was before
the break of dawn Sunday.
Rally leaders blamed the police for the
skirmishes, but authorities said that it was the rallyists who
provoked the conflict when lawmen were attacked with stones,
pillbox and Molotov cocktail bombs, as well as teargas canisters.
The protesters were pacified with water
cannons, as it was learned Monday morning that among those hurt
during the confrontations was Superintendent Rudy Lacadin, police
chief of Tarlac City.
One 18-year-old Joey Baldeviano, of Barangay
Balete, was rushed to a nearby hospital in Tarlac City due to
first degree burns after he accidentally stepped on exploded
pillboxes and Molotov cocktail bombs.
RADICAL SOLONS URGE FOR MORE PROTESTS
Meanwhile, two radical solons, sectoral Reps.
Crispin Beltran and Rafael Mariano, both of the militant Anakpawis
party-list group, urged the CAT employees, farmworkers and
villagers here to continue with the demonstrations.
In separate statements, they both said that
although the HLI has regarded the labor lockout as “illegal,”
the protesters’ demands were “just, legitimate and reasonable.”
Aside from a new “just” CBA with CATLU and
wage increases, as well as the reinstatement of the retrenched
farmworkers, Mariano said that the other demands included the
payment of the CAT workers’ two-month gratuity, moratorium in
the layoff of field personnel, and immediate economic relief to
the dismissed farmworkers’ families.
The Anakpawis solons added that the stock
option scheme here should now be abolished in favor of land
distribution, the farmworkers’ right to land in this estate
should be “recognized” by the government, conversion of
sugarcane fields for commercial use should be stopped, and that
all troops positioned here should be withdrawn by the Nolcom, with
their detachments dismantled to put an end to “militarization.”
Beltran also heads the militant labor group,
Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), while Mariano is the leader of the
Left-leaning Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP). NMT is
affiliated with the KMU, while the AMT is allied with the KMP.
The violent mass actions came as the sugar
refinery here, the biggest in Luzon, went full swing in its
operations for this year’s milling season.
The HLI has been claiming to have sustained
operational losses amounting to P215.11 million in 2002 and
P165.49 million last year.