DAR dared to move for cancellation of Cojuangco’s Luisita land title
NEWS RELEASE
August 2, 2012
DAR budget hearing
DAR dared to move for cancellation of Cojuangco’s Luisita land title
The militant peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) during the deliberations today of the Department of Agrarian Reform’s (DAR) P21-billion budget for 2013 today challenged the agency to immediately move for the cancellation of the land title of Hacienda Luisita owned by President Aquino’s family.
“It’s been more than three months since the Supreme Court ordered the distribution of the lands and the DAR has not moved to break the Cojuangco-Aquino’s control over Hacienda Luisita,” says KMP deputy secretary general Willy Marbella.
The KMP leader said that one significant move is the cancellation of the Hacienda Luisita land title by the registry of deeds.
“Instead of insisting on the highly questionable verification process that serves the interests of the President’s family, the DAR should immediately move for the cancellation of the Cojuangcos’ land title,” says Marbella.
Marbella pointed out that “the non-cancellation of Hacienda Luisita land titles in 1989 when the lands were placed under the anti-peasant stock distribution option (SDO) scheme of the CARP is one of the many reasons why the President’s family managed to illegally convert hundreds of hectares of the Hacienda and sold it to Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC).”
“The land title held by the Cojuangcos is a symbol of ownership and of feudal control and should be cancelled,” Marbella said.
The KMP maintained that the verification process by the DAR is along the line of the Cojuangcos’ maneuver to bloat the number of beneficiaries, further reduce the size of land for distribution, sow confusion and disunity among farmworkers, and eventually put their dummies and loyalists as so-called beneficiaries.
Reports said that the DAR already interviewed 8,400 farmworkers allegedly to validate those who signed the November 1989 stock distribution option. The KMP said that “in just two barangays (villages), the DAR already interviewed 6,000 beneficiaries” referring to Barangays Cutcut and Balete.
Marbella said that “these political maneuvers by Aquino’s family shows that the Cojuangcos will not simply let go of the lands and are determined to defy the Supreme Court’s order to distribute the lands.”
“While Aquino and his yellow gang are making false promises and deodorizing the bogus CARP, the President’s family-owned Hacienda Luisita stinks with political maneuvers and violence,” Marbella said. #
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KMP National Secretariat
25-B Matiyaga Street, Barangay Central, Quezon City
Philippines
Telefax: 632-4352383
Email: kmp@kilusangmagbubukid.org
Web: www.kilusangmagbubukid.org
