Will enforce SC ruling on Hacienda Luisita once it becomes final

ALTHOUGH it has yet to receive a copy of the Supreme Court ruling on the Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) case, the Department of Agrarian Reform said yesterday it was ready to implement the order once it becomes final and executory.

Secretary Virgilio delos Reyes, who was in a meeting with Region 13 officials in Butuan City, said that the department had prepared for an SC ruling in favor of the 6,296 farmer-beneficiaries.

“The Department will not issue any further reaction or comment without first having received and read a copy of the SC Resolution,” Delos Reyes said in a statement.

According to Delos Reyes, it is still possible that the concerned parties will file a motion asking the High Court to reconsider its decision.

On the other hand, HLI lawyer Vigor Mendoza said that the company will study if it would appeal the ruling.

The HLI lawyer hinted that the decision might create a “bigger problem” since it leaves 4,000 farmers landless.

Mendoza said the SC ruling only covers 6,000 beneficiaries that will have about 4,000 others left.     

SC ruling

The Supreme Court junked the sticky stock distribution option (SDO) available to tenants of Hacienda Luisita -- owned by the relatives of President Benigno Aquino III -- and ordered the immediate distribution of some 4,915.75 hectares of sugar plantation to over 6,000 farmer-worker-beneficiaries (FWBs).

In a unanimous vote, the SC accepted the appeal of the Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Hacienda Luisita (Ambala) and Farmworkers Agrarian Reform Movement (FARM) and reconsidered its July 5 ruling which gave the farmers the free will to choose between land or shares of stock.

In a 56-page ruling, the SC recalled this option previously given to the hacienda farmers and ruled that the sprawling plantation should be distributed to farmer-beneficiaries pursuant to the 2005 order of the then Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC).

Fourteen of the 15 justices voted for the total land distribution with Chief Justice Renato Corona taking no part in the deliberation and voting. However, those who voted for land distribution had different justifications and conditions for its implementation.

Likewise, the SC reiterated in its July ruling ordering the Hacienda Luisita Inc. to pay the farmers P1.33 billion to be broken down as follows (1) P500 million HLI received from Luisita Realty Inc. for the sale of 200 hectares of land in 1996; (2) P750 million for the sale of the Luisita Industrial Park; and, (3) P80,511,500 for the sale of the 80.51-hectare lot for the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX) road network.

This as the high court junked the partial motion for reconsideration of HLI. From the total amount, the three-percent proceeds of the transfers paid to farmers shall be deducted.

HLI would also be entitled to just compensation for the transfer of the agricultural land, which will be determined by the Department of Agrarian Reform and Land Bank of the Philippines.

The decision was penned by Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco who was supported by five other justices who held that the SDO would not give the farmers control over the agricultural lands.

“Upon a review of the facts and circumstances, we realize that the FWBs will never have control over these agricultural lands for as long as they remain as stockholders of HLI. In line with our finding that control over agricultural lands must always be in the hands of the farmers, we reconsider our ruling that the qualified farmers should be given an option to remain as stockholders of HLI, inasmuch as these qualified FWBs will never gain control given the present proportion of shareholdings in HLI,” Velasco's ponencia stated.

The SC noted that the 118,391,976.85 shares of stocks of farmers based on the SDO – one third of the total assets of HLI that is equivalent to the value of the land (P196,630,000) – would keep the farmers in the minority ownership.

“The number of shares that will constitute the majority is 295,112,101 shares. The 118,391,976.85 shares subject to the SDP approved by PARC substantially falls short of the 295,112,101 shares needed by the FWBs to acquire control over HLI,” it stressed.

Justices Teresita Leonardo de Castro, Diosdado Peralta, Mariano Del Castillo, Jose Perez and Roberto Abad concurred in this majority ruling.

Also in the decision, the SC directed DAR to verify the identities of exactly 6,296 farmers and make sure those are really entitled to the land as provided by Section 22 of R.A. 6657 (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988).

In light of the order for total distribution, the SC said the farmers “shall forfeit and relinquish their rights over the HLI shares of stock issued to them in favor of HLI.