Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) v. Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC), et al.

FACTS:
In 1958, the Spanish owners of Compañia General de Tabacos de Filipinas (Tabacalera)
sold Hacienda Luisita and the Central Azucarera de Tarlac, the sugar mill of the hacienda, to the
Tarlac Development Corporation (Tadeco), then owned and controlled by the Jose Cojuangco Sr.
Group.

On May 7, 1980, the martial law administration filed a suit before the Manila RTC against
Tadeco, et al., for them to surrender Hacienda Luisita to the then Ministry of Agrarian Reform
(MAR) so that the land can be distributed to farmers at cost. Responding, Tadeco alleged that
Hacienda Luisita does not have tenants, besides which sugar lands – of which the hacienda
consisted – are not covered by existing agrarian reform legislations.

On March 17, 1988, during the administration of President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino,
the OSG moved to withdraw the case, by virtue of PARC’s approval of TADECO’s proposed stock
distribution plan (SDP) in favor to the farmworkers. [Under EO 229 and later RA 6657, Tadeco
had the option of availing stock distribution as an alternative to actual land transfer to the
farmworkers.]

On May 9, 1989, some 93% of the then farmworker-beneficiaries (FWBs) complement of

Hacienda Luisita signified in a referendum their acceptance of the proposed HLI’s Stock
Distribution Option Plan (SODP)

The SDOA (Stock Distribution Plan Agreement) embodied the basis and mechanics of
HLI’s SDP, which was eventually approved by the PARC after a follow-up referendum (PARC
Resolution No. 89-12-2) conducted by the DAR on October 14, 1989, in which 5,117 FWBs, out
of 5,315 who participated, opted to receive shares in HLI.

HLI applied for the conversion of 500 hectares of land of the hacienda from agricultural to
industrial use, pursuant to Sec. 65 of RA 6657

HLI, in exchange for subscription of 12,000,000 shares of Stocks of Centennary, stock holder
of HLI. Centennary sold the entire 300 hectares for PhP750 million to Luisita Industrial Park
Corporation (LIPCO), which used it in developing an industrial complex