eyes wide open 1.0

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On November 4, 2004, more than 5,000 farm workers of the Hacienda Luisita went on strike after a deadlock in negotiations for a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between CATLU and Hacienda Luisita, Inc. (HLI) and the illegal dismissal of 327 farm workers belonging to ULWU. Among those illegally dismissed were top union officers.

On November 16, the infamous Hacienda Luisita Massacre would happen. In December 2005, the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) issued an order directing that the hacienda land be distributed among the tenant farmers, but this has been prevented by a temporary restraining order issued by the Supreme Court on a petition from the Cojuangcos.

Years after the farm workers of Hacienda Luisita began to enjoy the fruits of their labor even as they continue the fight for ownership of the land they till, they are now bracing to face a new storm on two fronts–a new land reform law and the presidential bids of two members of the Cojuangco clan.

Ironically, it was then Pres. Corazon Cojuangco Aquino, whose family owns the Hacienda, who signed the CARP law in 1987. Loop holes in the law prevented the sprawling 6,000-hectare estate from being distributed to farmers.

*aslam is sour in the local Kapampangan dialect.

related story: Bitter Land