Initial Report of the Hacienda Luisita National Fact-Finding Mission

Spearheaded by Anakpawis Party-list and Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) in cooperation with the Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (AMBALA) September 16-17, 2013 Barangays Cutcut (Sta. Catalina), Mapalacsiao and Balete, Hacienda Luisita, Tarlac City The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) is tasked by the Supreme Court (SC) in the latters final and executory resolution in the Hacienda Luisita case dated April 24, 2012, to finish within one year the distributionof 4,335 hectares of land to 6,296 qualified farmworker- beneficiaries (FWBs). The SC decision revokes the Stock Distribution Option (SDO) implemented in the sugar estate in 1989, and clearly states that the DAR must also facilitate the distribution of land that would be found to be agricultural in use. The ruling also compels the Hacienda Luisita, Inc. (HLI) to issue, for free, 18,804 shares of stocks to 4,026 non-qualified FWBs who will remain as stockholders of HLI, and to give full account of the proceeds of the sale of 500 hectares to Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) and Luisita Industrial Park Corporation (LIPCO) and 80 hectares used for Subic Clark Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX). The Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (AMBALA), the local alliance of Luisita farmworkers, has consistently lobbied for the DAR to acknowledge their demand for free land distribution and collective ownership, and to recognize their collective production initiative called bungkalan (tillage) which the farmworkers have established since 2005. AMBALA also asserts the farmworkers right to appoint an auditing firm of their choice that would audit the Php 1.33 billion farmworkers share of the sale of HLI assets. More than a year after the SC ruling, farmworkers are still clamoring for genuine land reform and social justice. From July 18 to August 19 this year, the DAR carried out the distribution of Lot Allocation Certificates (LAC) to listed FWBs in all of the 10 barangays of Hacienda Luisita through a rather unorthodox mode: tambiolo raffle. The DAR lottery, conducted with the heavy presence of armed military and police personnel, compelled most FWBs to sign a document called the Application to Purchase and Farmers Undertaking (APFU). AMBALA exposed and criticized extensive irregularities and cases of intimidation and harassment in the conduct of the DARs tambiolo land distribution. This prompted AMBALA, through its legal counsel, the Sentro para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo (SENTRA) to file an omnibus motion before the Supreme Court on July 23, questioning the anomalous land distribution scheme being implemented by the DAR. The National Fact-Finding Mission (NFFM) spearheaded by the office of Anakpawis Party-list representative Hon. Fernando Hicap and the Unyon ng Manggagawa saAgrikultura (UMA), was intended to further verify reports of fraud, militarization and new cases of landgrabbing, before, during and after the DARs tambiolo land distribution in Hacienda Luisita.
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ANAKPAWIS | UMA | AMBALA | HACIENDA LUISITA NATL FACT-FINDING MISSION INITIAL REPORT | SEPTEMBER 2013

The NFFM, held from September 16-17, was participated in by over 50 individuals from Manila and Central Luzon representing SENTRA, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), Pamalakaya, National Network of Agrarian Reform Advocates-Youth, Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), the national chapter of the human rights group KARAPATAN,Tanggol Magsasaka, Promotion of Church Peoples Response (PCPR), Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon (AMGL), and local and alternative media groups. The NFFM was preceded by a 3-day immersion program by student organizations of the De La Salle University College of St. Benilde from September 13-15. All activities were held within Barangays Cutcut (Sta. Catalina), Mapalacsiao and Balete in Tarlac City. The NFFM was conducted with the prior knowledge of local government units. AMBALA and UMA sent formal correspondences seeking audience with Provincial Governor Victor Yap and Mayor Gelacio Manalang of Tarlac City, which were officially received by both offices. Letters were also furnished to the 3 Barangays. In Barangay Cutcut, the NFFM delegates were entertained by local barangay officials. On the first day, NFFM delegates dispersed into three teams to cover the said barangays and conducted group discussions and individual interviews with Luisita farmworker-beneficiaries and residents. The NFFM delegates in Barangay Balete were joined by Anakpawis representative Hon. Fernando Hicap and his staff on the second day for an ocular inspection of disputed areas and to hold on-the-spot dialogues and interviews with private security and/or military personnel reportedly deployed in Hacienda Luisita. Here is the initial report of the Hacienda Luisita National Fact-Finding Mission (NFFM): Anomalous Land Survey and Renewed Landgrabbing The DAR is found to have committed various irregularities in its task to distribute land to Luisita farmworkers. The DAR utilized over discretion and what may be considered as blatant mass deception, enough to subject a number of DAR officials and personnel for censure and investigation. Hacienda Luisita is a 6,453-hectare sugar estate covering 10 barangays in the towns of La Paz, Concepcion and Tarlac City in the province of Tarlac. In 1989, 4,915 hectares were placed under SDO. Following the 2012 SC ruling, the DAR hired the FF Cruz firm to survey Hacienda Luisita. SENTRA claims that the FF Cruz merely copied the survey it conducted in 1989, which found only 4,099 hectares of agricultural land for distribution to 6,212 qualified FWBs, with each FWB expected to receive a 6,600 sqm. farmlot. According to SENTRA, FF Cruz based its survey on a total of 5,149 hectares in Hacienda Luisita and came up with a total of 4,099 for distribution to farmworkers, as it supposedly excluded residential areas, canals, roads, firebreaks, a cemetery, buffer zones, lagoons, fishponds, eroded areas, and legal easements. In 1989, these areas have already been excluded from the coverage of CARL through the SDO scheme. Today, the DAR survey shows a total deduction of more than 400 hectares for SCTEX access roads and other parcels to be used supposedly as common areas for FWBs, making the total land area for distribution to farmworkers much smaller.

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ANAKPAWIS | UMA | AMBALA | HACIENDA LUISITA NATL FACT-FINDING MISSION INITIAL REPORT | SEPTEMBER 2013

SUMMARY OF HACIENDA LUISITA INC. Updated summary as of July 12, 2013 LA PAZ T-236740 1,434.4829 10.0653 22.3791 4.0702 2.4815 6.3668 45.3629 TARLAC T-236741 1,783.7684 19.5641 26.1796 21.4215 38.1366 105.3018 1,678.4666 5.9715 500.0000 505.9715 1,172.4951 CONCEPCION T-236742 1,931.3068 6.1821 15.3719 12.5685 11.6206 45.7431 1,885.5637 26.6087 26.6087 1,858.9550 2.1063 10.0187 12.1250 1,857.6126 6.1821 15.3719 12.5685 34.1225 1891.7351 35.8115 63.9306 38.0602 2.4815 140.2838 4500.7976 0.0155 2.7425 6.4580 16.4283 54.0904 2.2315 3.7194 174.0760 0.8323 35.8115 63.9306 4,360.5138 80.5115 500.0000 580.5115 4,372.6388 TOTAL

Original Titles Area covered by Titles of HLI Less (Deducted in 1989): Roads Canals Eroded Legal Easement Residential TOTAL (TO BE DEDUCTED)

5149.5581 35.8115 63.9306 38.0602 2.4815 56.124 196.4078 4,953.1503

BALANCE 1,389.1200 Less (Per Supreme Court Directive): BCDA (SCTEX) 47.9313 Converted Areas TOTAL (TO BE DEDUCTED) 47.9313 BALANCE Less (Not Coverable): Cemetery SCTEX Access Roads TOTAL (TO BE DEDUCTED) 1,341.1887 2.1063 1.5936 3.6999

7.0827 7.0827

1.3424 1.3424

BALANCE 1,337.4888 1,165.4124 Add (Deducted back in 1989 but to be acquired as common areas of FWBs) Roads 10.0653 19.5641 Canals 22.3791 26.1796 Eroded 4.0702 21.4215 Legal Easement 2.4815 TOTAL (TO BE ADDED) 38.9961 67.1652 TOTAL AREA TO BE ACQUIRED 1376.4849 1232.5776 Less (to be retained by RP [not distributed] as common areas of FWBs) Concrete Structure 0.0155 Add. Eroded 2.7425 Creeks/Irrigation 0.9031 0.9813 New roads 4.3400 2.1417 Fishpond 14.1317 7.3715 Lagoon 2.2315 Railroad (Central) 3.7194 Firebreaks 63.5341 39.0121 Buffer zone 0.3768 0.2836 Roads 10.0653 19.5641 Canals 22.3791 26.1796

4.5736 9.9466 32.5872 71.5298 0.1719 6.1821 15.3719

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ANAKPAWIS | UMA | AMBALA | HACIENDA LUISITA NATL FACT-FINDING MISSION INITIAL REPORT | SEPTEMBER 2013

Eroded Legal Easement TOTAL (TO BE DEDUCTED) TOTAL NET DISTRIBUTABLE AREA

4.0702 2.4815 122.2818 1254.2031

21.4215 125.6643 1106.9133

12.5685 152.9316 1738.8035

38.0602 2.4815 400.8777 4099.9199 /6212=.6600/FWB

Source: DAR

AMBALA has repeatedly requested the DAR to furnish them a copy of the new Luisita survey conducted by FF Cruz, but the DAR has been ignoring the groups plea. AMBALA, through its July 23 motion, has even urged the SC to appoint a geodetic engineer, or an independent survey to validate the survey conducted by the DAR. Up to this moment, AMBALA has yet to receive a copy of the new DAR survey. This has become more urgent after the NFFM confirmed that tracts of land mysteriously disappeared from the DARs land distribution map as observed by farmworkers during the tambiolo raffles in Barangays Cutcut, Balete and Mapalacsiao. Farmworkers reported glaring discrepancies between the DARs allocated areas for FWBs and the actual agricultural land available for distribution. The NFFM confirmed that several tracts of land were deliberately excluded from the DAR survey and were not considered by the DAR for distribution despite their agricultural nature. In Mapalacsiao, only 144 lots or 95.04 hectares of land were allocated by the DAR for distribution to 815 beneficiaries. This means that majority, or 617 out of 815 FWBs from Mapalacsiao will not get farmlots within, or near their places of residence. Before the DAR lottery, Jose Peping Cojuangco himself reportedly made a visit to Barangay Mapalacsiao to survey lands owned by their familys company, the Tarlac Development Corporation (TADECO). Cojuangco reportedly told residents that he was planning to build a sports complex in TADECOs lands in Mapalacsiao. In Barangay Cutcut, residents questioned the exclusion of around 100 hectares of agricultural land from the DAR survey, notably the farmlots which are now part of the thriving bungkalan projects of AMBALA. Near these farmlots, TADECO has built security outposts manned by armed private guards. The NFFM monitored that the TADECO has issued written notices to at least 30 farmworkers, stating that these farmworkers have encroached lands owned by TADECO and should therefore vacate the lots within 15 days upon receipt of notice or face legal action. A total of 89 farmworkers are estimated to receive the same notice from TADECO. A total of 645 farmworker-beneficiaries live in Barangay Cutcut. In Barangay Balete, a total land area of 287 hectares is supposed to be up for distribution to 700 FWBs. However, Agrarian Reform Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Anthony Parungao, said in a media interview that only 117 lots or 77.22 hectares are available for distribution in Barangay Balete. This means that majority, or 583 out of 700 Balete FWBs will not get farmlots within, or near their places of residence. DAR insists that a large portion of the 500 hectares excluded from distribution due to land conversion is situated in Barangay Balete. However, Hacienda Luisita Inc. corporate secretary Emmanuel Cochico, in a letter to the DAR dated April 25, 2002, mentioned that these 500 hectares are situated not in Barangay Balete but in the sitios of San Miguel, Luisita and Bantug and in Barangay Ungot, Tarlac City.

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TADECO claims ownership of around 100 hectares of agricultural land within Barangay Balete, and has set up 6 security outposts around the area, manned by at least two armed private guards each. The NFFM found these areas to be part of AMBALAs bungkalan pilot areas which are now grown to palay, vegetables and fruit trees. At least 7 farmworkers from Barangay Balete received the same written notice as those issued to Cutcut residents. One of the recipients of the threatening TADECO notice died on the first day of the NFFM on September 16, even before delegates can get his story. The NFFMs ocular survey of the supposed converted areas in Barangay Balete found that these vast tracts of land remain agricultural in nature. Even the contested RCBC property which NFFM members have noticed to be not only plastered with signs proclaiming that it is not part of Hacienda Luisita but also concealed and fortified by several layers of concrete wall and fence to elude scrutiny has up to this day failed to undergo any kind of land use development even as the DAR approved its supposed conversion way back in 1996. The areas in question are definitely agricultural lands that should be included for distribution to farmworkers as ruled by the Supreme Court.TADECO as stated in the Supreme Court decision has no longer any legal claims to lands covered by Hacienda Luisita: the stock distribution scheme appeared to be TADECOs preferred option in complying with the CARP when it organized HLI as its spin-off corporation in order to facilitate stock acquisition by the FWBs. For this purpose, TADECO assigned and conveyed to HLI the agricultural lands of Hacienda Luisita, set at 4,915.75 hectares, among others. These agricultural lands constituted as the capital contribution of the FWBs in HLI. In effect, TADECO deprived itself of the ownership over these lands when it transferred the same to HLI. By withholding the survey from AMBALA and by consistently and openly defending the TADECOs claims to these agricultural lands in its recent media pronouncements, the DAR is in effect being complicit to any attempts by any party to go against the Supreme Court decision. DAR is practically aiding the CojuangcoAquino clan in the latters aggressive bid to retain ownership of choice prime lots, particularly in Barangays Balete, Cutcut and Mapalacsiao. Fraudulent Tambiolo Land Allocation Held at Gunpoint In all three barangays covered by the NFFM, residents reported the presence of DAR personnel months before the scheduled tambiolo raffles. These people were welcomed by barangay officials and held houseto-house information campaigns regarding the DARs land distribution scheme. These employees explained to farmworkers that the DAR land distribution scheme is good and will be for the benefit of all, as they warned that only those who will sign the APFU will be given land. DAR officials, even in their press releases always stress that the APFU is a mandatory requirement for the generation and registration of the beneficiarys Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA). According to a DAR press statement: the signing of the APFU manifests the willingness of the farmer-beneficiaries to abide by his/her obligation under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program which is to (a) cultivate the farm lots awarded to them, (b) pay the amortization based on the lands assessed value as well as the real estate taxes, and (c) desist from committing prohibited acts.
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ANAKPAWIS | UMA | AMBALA | HACIENDA LUISITA NATL FACT-FINDING MISSION INITIAL REPORT | SEPTEMBER 2013

AMBALA criticizes the DAR for compelling farmworkers to sign a document which states that they are willing to buy the land which is essentially theirs and at a price which is not expressedly stated in the document and can be easily manipulated to favor the Cojuangco-Aquino clan. SENTRA maintains that the threat of the DAR to disqualify the FWBs who fail or refuse to sign the AFPU has no basis in fact and in law. Farmworkers in the three barangays related instances of deception and disinformation perpetrated by DAR personnel and persons believed to be under the payroll of the Cojuangco-Aquino clan, months before the DARs lottery activities. In all three barangays, farmworkers were made to believe that signing the APFU is a pre-requisite for the beneficiary to avail of the Cojuangcos supposed offer to buy their farmlots at Php 1 million per hectare. In Barangay Cutcut, many FWBs attended the raffle proceedings with the belief that they will be instantly awarded the promised cash during the DAR lottery. In Mapalacsiao, financier-agents of the Cojuangco-Aquino clan urged farmworkers to sign the APFU to serve as a sort of collateral before cash-strapped farmworkers can avail of illicit loans and leasehold agreements. AMBALA sees this as a ploy to further cement the disqualification of beneficiaries who under land reform laws are obliged to make their farmlots productive and are prohibited to sell or lease these awarded farmlots. The tambiolo system itself is a very crude way of allocating land. It evades the correct process of consulting with the FWBs and studying the long history of exploitation within Luisita so as to exact social justice. Land allocation must consider the fact that farmworkers have already positioned themselves in plots that are naturally near their places of abode. By resorting to the random means of raffle, land allocation is conceded to chance and unavoidably causes displacements and sows confusion and dispute among the farmworkers themselves. In Barangay Balete, FWBs were designated lots in as far away as Barangays Pando and Mabilog in Concepcion town. To be able to tend to their supposed farmlots in these barangays, a Balete resident must travel about 20 kilometers back and forth and must spend as much as Php200 a day for transportation. In Barangay Mapalacsiao, a beneficiary awarded a farmlot in Barangay Motrico in La Paz town sought to survey the land allocated by DAR, only to be told by the Barangay Captain that her name and lot number was nowhere in the official DAR survey of Barangay Motrico. The NFFM further discovered that the tambiolo system was not random at all, but a preprogrammed scheme of imposing land allocation. Each paper that was raffled not only contained the name of the FWB but alsoa corresponding lot allocation that has already been pre-determined. Farmworkerbeneficiaries were never asked to pick random lot allocations from the tambiolo. During these raffles, farmworkers were practically made to witness how the DAR and the intimidating presence of hundreds of fully-armed police and military personnel orchestrated frightening mockery out of their decades-old toil. First-hand accounts from farmworkers and pictures lifted from the DARs Facebook page attest to the massive PNP and AFP deployment during DAR lotteries in different barangays.

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ANAKPAWIS | UMA | AMBALA | HACIENDA LUISITA NATL FACT-FINDING MISSION INITIAL REPORT | SEPTEMBER 2013

During the first lottery in Barangay Cutcut in July 18, the DAR mobilized around 200 armed police personnel including a SWAT team and a fire truck. In Barangay Balete, the NFFM confirmed reports that barangay officials were ordered by the DAR to dole out P300 to each absent FWB to lure them to join the lottery. Despite the heavy presence of PNP and AFP troopers, more than a hundred farmworkers held a bold protest action during the DARs lottery. After local and alternative media groups and observers left, however, the military conducted warrantless raids in several houses to harass farmworkers opposing the lottery scheme. In the final lottery held in Barangay Mapalacsiao, about a hundred PNP personnel were deployed a day before the August 19 DAR acitivity. Residents estimate the total number of armed men deployed to reach around 500, including armed intelligence agents in civilian clothes. Around 40 soldiers, believed by residents to be snipers, were positioned atop the barangay hall roofdeck. Farmworkers complained about the way the DAR holed them up inside the covered court, with policemen locking and heavily guarding all alternative exits. Police and military personnel were deployed at every street corner, apparently anticipating and aiming to preempt any form of protest from the farmworkers. A farmworker in Mapalacsiao narrates: Ako po inilagay sa Motrico, pina-sign po nila ako doon. Pero nandyan na ang papel, pero hindi ko pa tiningnan. Pinataas ang kamay ko (paramanumpa), tapos ibinababa ko (ang kamay ko). Nagsabi ako, e ako pang magbabayad, yung mga ninuno namin, sila na ang nagbungkal tapos kami pa ang magbabayad! E, wag kanang magrekamo, sabing pulis. Ikawnaligo ka pa, pumunta ka dito. Basa pa ang buhok mo. E ano, kung naligo ako, amuyin mo pa shampoo yan, hindi yan langis. Bakit tinatanong mo pa ang paliligo ko, kako? Naka-ganyan (nakasumpa ang kamay) na kasi ako, e. E bakit ako manunumpa, lupa naming ito. Ay hindi, itaas mo yan (kamaymo), sabing pulis. Opo, naka sign po ako kasi ninerbyos ako kasi may mga baril po sila. Natakot po ako. The NFFM confirmed reports that this flawed and fraudulent tambiolo land allocation was practically held at gunpoint to ensure participation of defiant Luisita farmworkers. Reign of Terror and Militarization There is undoubtedly a reign of terror within Hacienda Luisita, as demonstrated by the intimidating presence of hundreds of police and military personnel before, during and after the DARs lottery activities. The TADECOs armed security guards also serve to intimidate legitimate land reform beneficiaries in the very farmlots they have made productive after years of struggle. The 31st Infantry Battalion (Mechanized) of the Philippine Army maintains a detachment in an area called Aqua in Barangay Cutcut. A unit of the paramilitary CAFGU also maintains a detachment near the welcome arc entrance of this same barangay. In Barangay Balete, the NFFM delegates led by Rep. Fernando Hicap were able to seek a surprise dialogue with military personnel stationed near the farm lots of AMBALA leaders Rene Galang and Florida Pong Sibayan. The NFFM confirmed that the military has cleared around half a hectare of land for the construction of a military detachment. The officer-in-charge of the troops refused to identify himself and

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his unit, even after Rep. Hicap introduced himself as a legislator, and the delegation as part of a legitimate fact-finding mission to look into the land distribution issues in Hacienda Luisita. The officer, however, told the NFFM that the area for the detachment was offered to the military by the Luisita Realty Corporation or LRC, another Cojuangco-owned firm. The officer claimed that they were to vacate their former post in Aqua because the area was now up for land distribution to farmworkers. An ocular survey of the area surrounding the planned military detachment reveals that the land in question is agricultural in nature and is in fact right beside healthy crops tended by AMBALA leaders. That the DAR has exempted this area from land distribution and has allowed the Cojuangco-Aquino clan to utilize armed government units to guard these areas from legitimate beneficiaries is alarming. After the dialogue with military officers, the NFFM delegates themselves experienced first-hand the reign of terror wrought by the Cojuangco-Aquino clan in Hacienda Luisita. Without any provocation, around 7-10 armed men in civilian clothes and more than 20 members of the Tarlac City PNP headed by OIC Chief Bayani Razalan, violently and arbitrarily arrested members of the NFFM, not sparing Rep. Fernando Hicap who promptly identified himself as a government official. The police nabbed and manhandled delegates of the NFFM which included elderly farmworkers and women from Barangay Balete. Of the eleven arrested, six were women Sister Patricia Fox of Tanggol Magsasaka, Anakpawis staff Karl Mae San Juan and Kerima Acosta, and Balete residents Florida Pong Sibayan, Luz Versola and Angelina Nunag. Also arrested were Rep. Hicaps aide Rene Blasan, Anakpa wis staff and Asian Peasant Coalition Secretary-General Danilo Ramos, KARAPATAN paralegal Ronald Gustilo, and cultural worker Ericson Acosta. Nine of the eleven arrested NFFM delegates were charged with malicious mischief and direct assault. The Tarlac City PNP admitted that the arrests were conducted based on complaints by the Cojuangco-owned TADECO. The harassment and trumped-up charges against supporters of Hacienda Luisita farmworkers come in the light of a spate of illegal arrests of local Luisita leaders and farmworkers. In February 28 this year, the PNP devised the illegal arrest and detention of three AMBALA members staging a picket in Tarlac City in support of their leaders in a dialogue with local DAR officials. Days before the NFFM, police arrested a farmworker in Barangay Bantog for an alleged crime he committed when he was only 16 years old. According to the KARAPATAN fact sheet, on the February 28 incident: On February 28, 2013, more than eighty (80) farm beneficiaries and members of AMBALA staged a picket-rally in front of La Maja Rica Hotel and Restaurant, Tarlac City, in support of their leaders who were in a 2:00 p.m. meeting in the Conference Room of La Maja Rica, called by Engr. Emmanuel G. Aguinaldo, PARO II of DAR Region III. When the meeting ended at around 4:00 p.m. and the farmer-leaders were going out to join their members, the policemen (some in full battle gear and some in uniform) who were monitoring the rally started to arrest some among the rallyists. Those illegally arrested were Wilson Duque and Renato Mendoza of Barangay Cutcut and Jay Parazo of Barangay Balete who were immediately brought and detained at Camp Macabulos, Tarlac City.
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ANAKPAWIS | UMA | AMBALA | HACIENDA LUISITA NATL FACT-FINDING MISSION INITIAL REPORT | SEPTEMBER 2013

The NFFM, through a KARAPATAN paralegal gathered the following data on the arrest of farmworkers in Barangay Bantog days before the NFFM: Noong 10 Setyembre 2013, bandang alas-5 ng hapon, tatlong lalaki nanaka-suot pang-sibilyan ang pumunta sa bahayni Rico Tabago. Nagpakilalang pulis ang mga lalaki, subalit hindi nagbigay ng kanilang mga pangalan. Pinapapunta ng mga pulissi Rico sa presinto, at ipinakita ang isang Warrant of Arrest para sa Criminal Case #8456 - Arson/Violation of PD 1613 na inisyu ni Judge Cesar Agonon (Branch 63, Tarlac City RTC) noong 5 Agosto 2013. Nakapangalan rin sa Warrant sina Mario Caguioa (deceased), Elmer Cruz, ValienteAlmera at Crisanto Balot, mga residente ng Bgy. Asturias. Kinabukasan, 11 Setyembre 2013, dumating sa presinto sina Elmer Cruz at ValienteAlmera, sapagaakala na may hearing ang kaso laban sa kanila. Agad din silang kinulong. Noong araw rin naito ay nakalaya sila sa pamamagitan ng pag-piyansang tig-5,000 piso bawat isa. Ang habla laban sa kanila ay para sa kasong panununog diumano ng tubo noong 1994. Ayon kay Rico, noong 1994, siya ay 16 anyos pa lang. After the arrest of 11 NFFM delegates, more cases of harassment and intimidation were reportedly perpetrated by the TADECO security guards and intelligence agents in civilian clothes around Barangay Balete. Conclusion: Land to the Toilers Now! While there is still a considerable amount of data collected by the NFFM that has yet to be synthesized, this initial report represents in a very significant way the unanimous assessment of all the NFFM delegates. There is more than enough evidence and urgent consideration, pending publication of a comprehensive document, for the NFFM to declare that land distribution in Hacienda Luisita has so far been a big failure. The DAR must be compelled to present an explanation for its blatant overdiscretion. It must be investigated for the motives that have led it to practically sabotage the SC decision. State armed units that are currently deployed in the area must be withdrawn. The farmworkers are supposed to be the beneficiaries here and are not the dangerous enemies of the state that the ubiquitous presence and continued activities of the police and the military essentially and powerfully imply. TADECO, LRC and other parties especially those with links with the Cojuangco-Aquino clan should refrain from any effort to physically claim any portion of the agricultural lands in Hacienda Luisita. President Noynoy Aquino should immediately call the attention of his family members regarding this matter, lest it be made clear and undeniable that he himself is not at all keen on giving up his landlord interest in this vast and already much-disputed estate THIS land that the law, history and social justice mandate SHOULD belong to its toilers.

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ANAKPAWIS | UMA | AMBALA | HACIENDA LUISITA NATL FACT-FINDING MISSION INITIAL REPORT | SEPTEMBER 2013