Protesters take control of Hacienda Luisita
News HACIENDA LUISITA — Protesting laborers and farmworkers here, joined by their respective families and reinforced by militant activists, have practically taken control over nearly all movements in this sprawling sugar estate owned by the family of former President Corazon Aquino.

This, as the regional office for Central Luzon of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) yielded to demands by local officials in the province and Tarlac City not order the police anti-riot contingent to have the protesters dispersed in the course of implementing Labor Sec. Patricia Sto. Tomas’ return-to-work order.

It was late last Thursday when the number of rallyists here surged, the bulk of which is at the main gate of the Central Azucarera de Tarlac (CAT)’s sugar refinery.

Road blocks were also set up by the protesters along nearly all thoroughfares here, including the one leading to the Alto compound where Mrs. Aquino and other members of the Cojuangco family live, as well as the one going to the Luisita Golf Course and the posh Las Haciendas Luisita subdivision.

In a statement by the corporate affairs office of the Hacienda Luisita, Inc. (HLI), it claimed that the combined mass actions being staged by the CAT Labor Union (CATLU) and the United Luisita Workers’ Union (ULWU) created a “reign of terror.”

The CATLU represents the more than 750 factory workers at the sugar mill here, while the ULWU is the recognized labor group of this estate’s more than 5,000 farmworkers regarded as “co-owners” by Mrs. Aquino’s family in the HLI, the corporate farming firm established in the late 1980s under the stock distribution scheme of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

But CATLU president, Ric Ramos, said that the actions taken by the protesters were their “legitimate reaction” to the purported continued refusal by the management to resume their stalled collective bargaining agreement (CBA) talks, and to threats of violent dispersal following Sto. Tomas’ order, as well as her order of “assumption of jurisdiction” over the labor dispute by the DOLE.

In several instances, HLI’s private security force and policemen deployed to this estate even had to ask permission from protesters manning what the rallyists have described as “people’s blockades” in order for them to pass through.

It was at exactly 5:30 p.m. last Thursday when the deadline for the return-to-work order expired, with anti-riot policemen dispatched by no other than Chief Supt. Quirino dela Torre, regional police director for Central Luzon, then prepared to disperse rallyists who have blocked the main entrance and exit points to the refinery.

But Sto. Tomas’ order was met with vehement defiance, as police estimated that more than 6,000 villagers from the 10 barangays in Tarlac City and the towns of Concepcion and La Paz covered by this vast estate have suddenly massed up at the mill’s Gate 1.

This, even as the Armed Forces’ Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom), whose headquarters is located adjacent to this plantation in Barangay San Miguel, Tarlac City, also deployed soldiers from the Army’s 69th Infantry Battalion to reinforce anti-riot policemen.

Nolcom spokesman, Lt. Col. Preme Monta, however declined to disclose how many soldiers were actually dispatched here.

VIOLENCE AVERTED

But the looming violence was prevented on interventions by Gov. Jose Yap and Tarlac City Mayor Genaro Mendoza.

On Friday afternoon, Yap called for an emergency meeting at his office, which was attended by Quirino, Mendoza, Ramos, ULWU president Rene Galang; activist lawyer Nenita Mahinay, counsel for the protesters; Tarlac police provincial director, Senior Supt. Angelo Sunglao; Tarlac City police chief, Supt. Rudy Lacadin; DOLE sheriff Francis Reyes; lawyer Elenita Cruz, head for Region-III of the National Conciliation and Mediation Board; and, Josephino Torres, DOLE’s Central Luzon regional director.

Also present were board member Amado Go, city vice mayor Teresita Cabal, and councilors Frank Dayao, Abel Ladera, Arsenio Lugay, Joji David, Vladimir Rodriguez and Henry de Leon.

The meeting lasted for nearly six hours.

During the discussions, which often turned emotional and tense, all parties agreed that violence will likely erupt should the police implement Sto. Tomas’ order by way of dismantling the rallyists’ picketlines.

Video footages taken by the police that were shown during the meeting showed that some of the defiant protesters were attacking lawmen with slingshots, even as there were also numerous women and children in the main barricade setup by the rallyists at the mill’s Gate 1.

Galang said that their wives, whom he claimed were also enraged by the deteriorating situation here that they have to join them in the picketlines, had to bring along their children because nobody would care for them in their homes.

Because of this, Yap said he could not risk bloodshed within his jurisdiction, nor having the police in the province charged with human rights violations.

As a recourse, Torres himself decided to temporarily suspend the implementation of his superior’s order, even as they sought from Sto. Tomas clarifications on how would the police go about in helping the CAT resume its milling operations.

There were however light moments among the rally leaders, police and labor officials during the breaks in their heated discussions, that some shared cigarettes while having cups of coffee.

At least two incidents of violent confrontations between the protesters and anti-riot policemen already ensued since the mass actions commenced last Nov. 6. Both sides have blamed each other for these.

RESUME NEGOTIATIONS

During the dialogue, all parties agreed that the only peaceful way to solve the labor standoff here is for the stalled negotiations by the CAT and HLI with the CATLU and ULWU, respectively, have to be resumed.

Cabal said that during one of their breaks, Mrs. Aquino’s only son, Tarlac second district Rep. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino Jr., called her up and told her that the Cojuangco family “never” abandoned the talks with their unions.

CATLU was in a deadlock in its CBA talks with the management, as the union was demanding for a P100 wage hike and a P30,000 signing bonus for each of its members, but the CAT was firm in its position that it can only provide a P12 salary increase and a P12,000 bonus.

ULWU, on the other hand, has been demanding for the reinstatement of 327 farmworkers who were dismissed by the HLI last October, even as among those removed from their jobs were Galang, its vice president, Ildefonso Pingul, and eight other union officers.

The inclusion of the 10 ULWU officers in the mass layoff came while the union had just commenced holding CBA negotiations with the HLI, even as Galang and his colleagues were even subsequently “replaced” by another set of officials, supposedly owing to their being no longer connected with the Cojuangco-owned firm.

Mahinay said that these would belie Rep. Aquino’s claim, as she insisted that the salary increase being sought by the CATLU was “just and legitimate,” while the mass retrenchment carried out by the HLI was “tainted with union-busting” in a supposed attempt to “rig” CBA talks with the ULWU.

The protesters’ counsel added that Sto. Tomas’ order for the DOLE to assume jurisdiction over the labor dispute and for the workers to return to their jobs “practically closed all doors for negotiations, and opened the door for violence.”

BACKCHANNEL

In the same meeting, the local officials have vowed to do their part in convincing both the Cojuangco family and protest leaders to hold negotiations instead.

“We are not siding with anyone here,” said Yap, “we want this issue resolved peacefully for the sake of everybody.”

Mendoza, whose family has been an ally of the Cojuangcos here, as his father had served as one of the top executives in this estate, said that “there could be ways for adjustments.”

Councilor Dayao said that they will “use all lines of communications.”

As of noontime Saturday, it was learned that a “backchannel” was already created for informal talks between management and protest leaders.

This estate hosts Luzon’s biggest sugar refinery, as it has the capacity to mill 7,080 tons of sugarcane a day.

Management has claimed that it was losing P5 million a day because of the labor lockout.

The shutdown of the refinery here came even as sugar planters from Tarlac, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Bulacan, and elsewhere in Central and Northern Luzon, were having their harvests milled for this year’s milling season. Some of them were already transporting their harvests to the Sweet Crystals Integrated Sugar Mills Corp., a small refinery located in Barangay Planas in Porac town, Pampanga.

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

The Hacienda Luisita used to be owned by Spaniards, but gave it up in the late 1950s after it was besieged by the “Huk rebellion” then being waged by the old Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP).

Later acquired by the Cojuangcos, with Mrs. Aquino’s husband, the late Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. as its first administrator, the sugar estate remained to be beset with agrarian unrests, with the farmworkers being instigated by militants to demand for the actual distribution of lands instead of being “stockholders” in the HLI.

Posted on Saturday, November 13 @ 16:09:48 HKT