NEWLY-APPOINTED Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza has been challenged by the militant peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) to move for the junking of the motion for reconsideration filed by President Aquino III’s relatives, the Cojuangco-Aquinos of Tarlac, over the controversial agrarian dispute on the more than 6,000-hectare Hacienda Luisita farm.

“The new SolGen should not succumb to the pressures of the President’s family over Hacienda Luisita. We challenge him to immediately move for the junking of the appeal filed by the Cojuangcos against the distribution of Hacienda Luisita,” said KMP deputy secretary general Randall Echanis.

But Echanis expressed fears that the appointment of a “Cojuangco lawyer” as new government lawyer may endanger farmers’ claim over the sprawling sugarcane plantation.

“It appears that the appointment a Cojuangco lawyer at the helm of the OSG forms part of the Cojuangco family’s insistent resistance to Hacienda Luisita’s distribution, strengthen Danding Cojuangco’s control and iron out kinks over the Palace-cooked compromise deal on the coco levy funds,” Echanis said.

The KMP noted that “the OSG and the Department of Agrarian Reform are yet to file an answer on Hacienda Luisita Inc.’s motion for reconsideration” on the Supreme Court ruling granting the distribution of Hacienda Luisita to farm workers.