WHY NAMED LUISITA??

Hacienda Luisita was once owned by the Compaa General de Tabacos de Filipinas," also known as "Tabacalera", founded in
November 1881 by Don Antonio Lpez y Lpez, a Spaniard from Santander, in Cantabria, Spain.

Lopez acquired the estate in 1882, a year before his death, and named it Hacienda Luisita" after his wife, Luisa Bru y Lasss.

Lopez was considered a financial genius and the most influential Spanish businessman of his generation." He counted the King
of Spain as a personal friend.

Luisita was just one of his haciendas. Lopez also owned estates in other parts of the country: Hacienda Antonio (named after his
eldest son), Hacienda San Fernando, and Hacienda Isabel (named after his eldest daughter).

Tabacaleras incorporators included the Sociedad General de Crdito Inmobiliario Espaol, Banque de Paris (now Paribas), and
Bank of the Netherlands (now ABN-AMRO). Luisita was a sugar and tobacco plantation.

It all began with theTabacalera
In 1882, Don Antonio Lopez Y Lopez, the most successful and influential Spanish businessman of the 19
th
Century, acquired
more than 12,000 hectares of prime agricultural land in Tarlac, Central Luzon, on behalf of his newly formed company, the
Compania General de Tobacos de Filipinas, known as the Tabacalera. This acquisition was achieved by means of a Royal
Grant from the Spanish Crown, which held a self appointed claim to the lands of the Philippines as colonial overlords. He
named the property Hacienda Luisita, after his wife, Luisa Bru Y Lassus.

Don Antonio was an extraordinary character in himself. Born in the small town of Comillas, on the North Coast of Spain, and
losing his father at the age of 2, Lopez was sent to work with relatives in Andalusia at 10 years of age, to help support his
family. Lopez migrated to Cuba at the age of 14, where he spent the next twenty years, initially building a trading business,
dealing in flour, and other basic commodities, which he converted into a shipping company, which would eventually become
known as the Compania Transatlantica Espanola.

Lopez attracted great favor from the Spanish Crown, and considerable profit for his company, with the transfer of troops to and
from Spains colonial insurrections in Africa in 1859 and the ten year war in Cuba from 1861 by steam ship. His company held
the contract for the shipping of Spains Colonial correspondence, as well as being a major shipper of commodities, including
slaves, between Spain and her colonies.

By the time of his installation as the 1
st
Marquis of Comillas, a Royal Thiefdom , created for him by a grateful King, in 1878,
Don Antonio had expanded his empire into Banking, mining, and rail infrastructure in Spain. As well as substantial tobacco and
sugar estates in the Caribbean. Lopez was considered a close friend and adviser to King Alfonso the XII of Spain, as well as
being a well known associate of Spains first Prime Minister of foreign blood, the Spanish/Filipino Don Marcelo Azcarraga y
Palmero.



The American Occupation (1899 1946)
The United States entered The Philippines in 1899, in the guise of supporting the existing Philippine War of Independence
against the Spanish, initially as part of the tail end of the Spanish American War. After negotiating terms with the Spanish (who
at the time were on the brink of defeat by the forces of the First Philippine Republic, who had encircled the last of the Spanish
forces in their walled Capital of Manila). The United States reneged on a deal with the President of the First Republic Emilio
Aguinaldo, and annexed the Philippines as an extension of the spoils of the Spanish American War. An action which led to war
with the Philippines. Which, as far as Central Luzon was concerned lasted until 1901 (in other areas of The Philippines, most
notably the Moro areas of Western Mindanao, armed resistance to the Americans continued as late as 1913).


From the very beginning the United States represented the annexation of the Philippines as a period of tutelage towards self
rule. President McKinley initiated two commissions to report to congress on the issue, the Schumman Commission, in 1898,
delivered in 1900, and the Taft Commission which included some executive powers in the Philippines in 1900, delivered in
1902. It was the assertion of these Commissions that if handed independence at that point the leadership of the Islands would
rapidly fall into anarchy. With the Taft commission further stating that the plan put forward by Aguinaldo for the rule of the
Oligarchy is unsuitable and undemocratic.

Although it was not apparent at the time, the seeds of post independence Hacienda Luisita were sewn in this period, with the
great wealth of the Cojuangco family appearing miraculously between 1899 and 1901. The Cojuangcos settled in Paniqui,
Tarlac, in March 1896. The patriarch of the clan, the Chinese immigrant Jose Cojuangco (Chinese name Koh Giok Kuan), a
builder who had obtained a reputation for the quality of his work, most notably for the Church in Balacan.
It is said that the source of the Cojuangcos wealth came via General Antonio Luna, the Supreme Chief of the Army of the First
Republic of the Philippines. Anecdotal evidence suggests that Luna had the funds of the revolution collected from repositories
in Illocos and Pampanga, sent to the home of his girlfriend, Ysidra Cojuangco, in Paniqui, Tarlac, for safe keeping from the
advancing American Forces. The last of these shipments arriving from Pampanga 3 days before Lunas assassination at the
hands of troops loyal to Aguinaldo, the President of the First Republic, in June 1899. After Lunas death the Cojuangcos are
believed to have hidden the treasure in a well on the property. The funds were never recovered and it is suggested that the
Cojuangcos simply kept the money, using it as capital to build there extensive empire in the years immediately following the
conflict.

The Cojuangcos themselves have maintained that their rapid accumulation of wealth in this period was due to frugality and
good business sense in rice marketing and money lending activities. They maintain that they were aided by free rail transport to
Manila markets from their rice mill in Paniqui (the commercial rate at this time being P 2.50 per sack), as a gift from General
Arthur Macarthur, whom they assisted with accommodation and storage space during the American advance. However given
that in this period rice production in Tarlac was hampered not only by war, but also by severe floods and locust plagues it is
difficult to see how this competitive advantage could translate to a building family who invested in a 2 hectare property and
small rice mill in 1896, to owning 2,000 hectares along the rail line by 1901. A holding which increased to more than 12,000
Hectares, spread across Central Luzon by the 1920s.
Regardless of the source, by the official end of hostilities in the region in 1901, Ysidra Cojuangco, the spinster aunt of Jose
Pepe Cojuangco, his 3 brothers, Juan, Antonio and Eduardo, and matriarch of the clan, was considered the richest woman in
the Philippines.
Under American occupation contrary to what might have been expected, the Spanish owned Hacienda Luisita flourished. This
was largely due to the American obsession with sugar. The Tabcalera, abandoned tobacco production on the estate in the 1920s
to cater for the growing sugar quotas from the US. In 1927 they constructed the sugar refinery the Central Azcurarera de
Tarlac (CAT), incorporating centrifugal machinery from the US to effectively double production and negate their need to ship
the sugar to refineries in Laguna, owned by the Roxas family. At one point prior to the outbreak of World War II, Hacienda
Luisita was supplying 20% of the sugar consumed in the United States.

The Japanese Occupation
During the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines (1941 1945), sugar production continued at Hacienda Luisita. The
Japanese policy was to ensure that supplies of commodities such as sugar were not interrupted, in an attempt to avoid
insurgencies. The continuation of production served both Spanish and Japanese interests at the time.
During the liberation of the Philippines from Japanese occupation, General Douglas Dugout Doug Macarthur, set up his
advanced headquarters at Hacienda Luisita on the 25th of January 1945. Macarthur was a childhood friend of Pepe Cojuangco.
The famous, official publicity photograph on the right shows Macarthur stepping ashore on Leyte in company with the
President of the Commonwealth in exile, Sergio Osmena (far left in pith helmet) .



The Cojuangco Purchase
In the early 1950s, the Spanish owners of the Tabacalera, decided to sell Hacienda Luisita and the CAT, due to concerns over
Hukbalahap (communist) insurgencies in the area.

The wealthy Lopez family of Iloilo moved to purchase the CAT, but this purchase was vetoed by President Ramon Magsaysay,
reportedly due to concerns the Lopez clan, who already owned Meralco, Negros Navigation,The Manila Chronicle, ABS-CBN,
substantial agricultural holdings in the Western Visayas and the nearby PASUMIL consortium in Pampanga which they had
purchased from the Americans,would become too powerful.
Instead he brokered a deal with his political prodigy Benigno Ninoy S Aquino Jr, for whom Magsaysay had acted as Ninong
(primary sponsor) of his wedding to Corozon Cojuangco, to offer the property exclusively to Ninoys father-in-law Jose Don
Pepe Cojuangco Sr. The Cojungcos at the time were already the largest land owners in Central Luzon, but while wealthy in
Peso and bank holdings, had no substantial holdings in US dollars.


After Magsaysays death, in a plane crash in Cebu on March 17th 1957, the sale continued under the Presidency of Carlos
Garcia, a strong supporter of then Senator Ferdinand Marcos. In August 1957 the Philippine Government facilitated the
purchase of the CAT by providing Central Bank (CB) support to the Cojuangcos to obtain a Dollar loan from the Manufacturers
Trust Company of New York (MTC). This support required the CB to deposit a substantial amount of the Nations Dollar
reserve with the MTC.


The CB extended this support on the condition that the Cojuangcos also purchase the by then 6,453 hectare Hacienda Luisita
with the CAT, with a view to distributing the land to small farmers within a 10 year period of the purchase under reasonable
terms.
On the 27th of August, 1957, the Central Bank Monetary Board issued Resolution No. 1240, approving the loan for the
purchase of shares in the CAT, adding the clause that, There shall be a simultaneous purchase of Hacienda Luisita with the
purchase of the shares, with a view to distributing this hacienda to small farmers in line with the Administrations Social Justice
program.
The Government also organized a loan from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), for the purchase of the
Hacienda. On November 27th, 1957, the GSIS approved a loan of P 5.9 million through Resolution No. 3202. The GSIS loan
was approved after Don Pepe informed them in a letter that the Cojuangcos acquisition of the Hacienda would pave the way
for the sale to bona fide planters on a long term basis, portions of the Hacienda. On the condition that Hacienda Luisita be
subdivided among the tenants who shall pay the cost thereof under reasonable terms and conditions.
Four months later, Don Pepe Cojuangco made a successful application to the GSIS to change the phrase to shall be sold at
cost to tenants, should there be any. This phrase would be cited later on as justification not to distribute the Haciendas land.

So on April the 8th 1958 Don Pepe Cojuangcos company, the Tarlac Development Corporation (TADECO), became the new
owner of Hacienda Luisita and Central Azucarera de Tarlac. Don Pepe immediately installed Ninoy Aquino as Administrator of
the Hacienda.

The purchase of Hacienda Luisita and the CAT was the largest investment ever made. The Cojuangcos Lawyer in the purchase
of Hacienda Luisita was Juan Ponce Enrile. the leader of the 1986 People Power Revolution and current President of the
Philippine Senate.

The Great Social Experiment
On taking over Don Pepe and Ninoy immediately installed a near welfare state at Hacienda Luisita. The initiatives implemented
included, free medical care and medicines, scholarships to college, free education, free food and equitable shares of the harvest
to farmers, free childcare, free burials, a village earmarked for the farmers and free fuel for tractors.
Although Don Pepe made losses, he was able to support his social reform program through his other profitable investments in
the Bank of Commerce and First Manila Management, which he owned, and his holdings in Pantranco buses and the Mantrade
Group.
During the period of Don Pepe and Ninoys Administration of the Hacienda there was great optimism among the residents. Not
a single strike was instigated in this period by the farm or refinery workers, nor indeed by the workers at the nearby Paniqui
Sugar Mills, which were managed by Don Pepe on behalf of his aunt, the Cojuangco Matriarch Ysidra. To this day the majority
of older residents maintain a deep and genuine affection for the two men.
The Marcos era
In 1965 Ferdinand Marcos defeated the incumbent Diosdado Macapagal in what is often described as the most corrupted
election in Philippine History. Marcos set out on a campaign against the established Oligarchy of the Philippines of which the
Cojuangcos were a member. His most vocal critic and effective leader of the opposition was now Senator Ninoy Aquino.


The 10-year window given by the Philippine Government for the Cojuangcos to distribute the land elapsed in 1967 with no land
distribution taking place. During this time, farmers began to organize into groups to push for land distribution. The Cojuangcos,
however, insisted that there were no tenants on the Hacienda, hence no need to distribute land.
In 1969 a family feud led to Don Pepe selling his 28% share in the Bank of Commerce, to the other 3 strands of the
Cojuangco family. It is believed that this split occurred due to the unwillingness of the representatives of the other strands of the
family led by Juan Itoy, Don Pepes brother, Ramon, the son of Antonio Sr, who was killed by the Japanese in 1945, and the
then Congressman in Marcos Nationalista Party, Danding, son of Eduardo, who died of kidney failure when the family were
unable to convert there Peso holdings into Dollars to obtain medical treatment in the United States, to allow Don Pepes eldest
son Pedro to take over as president of the Bank. Although this sale was on amicable terms it removed one of the 3 props that
Don Pepe held to mitigate the loses generated by the Hacienda
Marcos declared Martial Law on the 21st of September 1972. Not withstanding that the primary reason given for the declaration
was concerns over Communist insurgency in lite of a series of events, most notably the Plaza Miranda Bombing in Manila in
August 1971, which the Communist Party claimed responsibility for. However despite the fact that the Plaza Miranda incident
was a direct attack on the Liberal Party, Liberal Senator Ninoy Aquino was among the first to be arrested and imprisoned under
the new powers.
Added to this Don Pepe was unable to upgrade the machinery in the aging CAT. The Marcos administration had refused his
application to increase fares on his Pantranco buses to compensate for rising costs, despite allowing other companies to do so.
Marcos critics believed that this was an attempt to coerce Don Pepe into apply pressure on his son in law Ninoy to refrain from
making disparaging remarks about the President and First Lady Imelda Marcos (who Ninoy had labeled the new Eva Peron).
In 1974 Don Pepes business empire suffered a further blow with the death of his close friend and business partner Manuel
Lopa. Lopa had maintained a close relationship withSpeaker of the House of Representatives, Daniel Romualdez, Imeldas
uncle. Ambassador Benjamin Romualdez, the brother of Imelda, then coerced Pepe and his son-in-law, RicardoBaby Lopa
(Manuels son) into selling the collection of 38 companies under First Manila Management to him. Baby and his wife Teresita
Cojuangco, together with Pepe and the rest of the Lopa heirs, had no choice but to sell. The second of Don Pepes 3 props for
the Hacienda disappeared with this extortion.
Finally in early 1976 Don Pepe sold off his final prop, The First United Bank, which he had built up on his own after his ousting
from the family owned Bank of Commerce to his nephew Danding for an amicable sum. With all of his external lifelines
gone Don Pepe was left with little more than a half rehabilitated and barely earning white elephant.
Don Pepe Cojuangco died, reportedly a broken and disillusioned man, on the 21st of August, 1976, while Ninoy Aquino was
still in custody. His funeral was attended by thousands of Hacienda Luisita residents.
The Government had sent only three letters to the Cojuangcos from the 1960s to the 1970s to follow up the issue of land
distribution.During 1977 the Government reviewed the Cojuangcos compliance with the land distribution condition contained in
the loan agreements.
On the 22nd of June, 1978, Demetira Cojuangco, the widow of Don Pepe, wrote to Ernesto Valdez, the Deputy Minister of the
Ministry of Agrarian Reform. In this letter she said that it was extremely unwarranted to make us account for the fulfillment of
a condition that cannot be enforced, furthermore that there are no tenants in Hacienda Luisita, adding that the Central Bank
resolution does not indicate small farmers and that the Hacienda is outside the scope of any land reform program of the
Government and that there is no agrarian unrest in Hacienda Luisita.


The Marcos Government filed case No.13164, against Jose Cojuangco Sr and his heirs, before the Manila Regional Trial Court
(MRTC) on the 7th of May 1980, to force the Cojuangco-owned TADECO into surrendering Hacienda Luisita to the Ministry
of Agrarian Reform so that the land could be distributed to the farmers at cost. The case was filed as Ninoy Aquino and his
family were leaving for exile in the US.
The Cojuangcos responded to the government complaint by on the 10th of January 1981, arguing that the land could not be
distributed because the Hacienda did not have tenants. They also argued that sugar lands were not covered by existing agrarian
reform legislation. Anti-Marcos groups claimed that the governments case was an act of harassment against Ninoy Aquinos
family.
After living in exile for 3 years in Boston, Massachusetts, Ninoy Aquino returned to Manila. He was assassinated on the tarmac
of the Manila International Airport, now named in his honor, upon arrival on the 21st of August, 1983.
The MRTC ordered TADECO to surrender Hacienda Luisita to the Ministry of Agrarian Reform, to redistribute the land to
small farmers, and that the landowners, TADECO, be compensated P 3.988 million, on the 2nd of December 1985. The
Cojuangcos decried this as an act of harassment because Cory Cojuangco Aquino was set to run against Marcos in the February
1986 snap elections. The family later elevated the matter to the Court of Appeals.
On December 3, 1985, the day after the MRTC ruling, Cory Aquino, widow of Ninoy and daughter of Don Pepe, officially filed
her certificate of candidacy for President. Land reform was among the pillars of her campaign. She promised to give land to
the tiller and to subject Hacienda Luisita to land reform.
The Presidency of Corazon Cojuangco Aquino
The February the 7th, 1986 snap election was marred by allegations of widespread fraud against Marcos. The anti-Marcos
sentiments led to the People Power Revolution, a series of nonviolent mass street demonstrations, culminating in the
withdrawal of US backing for the Marcos regime, and finally, the seizure of the Malacanang Palace by a group led by the then
Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and General Fidel Ramos, Marcos cousin. Marcos and his senior cronies, including
Danding Cojuangco, fled the country to take refuge in the United States, and the millionaire housewife, Corazon Cojuangco
Aquino, who had been on retreat, meditating with the Carmelite Sisters in Cebu during the revolution, was elevated to the
Presidency. thus bringing a return to power for the more traditional Oligarchy of the Philippines.
The initial phase of the Cory Aquino Presidency was dominated by actions to sure up power, centered around the institution of a
much criticized new constitution, which extended greater protections to the landed Oligarchs. With no sign of the promised
agrarian reform on the horizon, labour groups became more and more frustrated and eleven months into the Cory Aquino
presidency, on the 22nd of January, 1987, thousands of frustrated farmers marched to Malacaang demanding land reform and
the distribution of land at no cost to beneficiaries. In a violent dispersal, 13 protesters were killed in what has gone down in
history as the Mendiola Massacre. An event cited today by the left as the beginning of Cory Aquinos reign of blood, and
the first of scores of massacres and dispersals perpetrated on the Philippine people by the forces of her regime.
Eventually on the 22nd of July, 1987, Cory issued Presidential Proclamation 131 and Executive Order No. 229 outlining her
agrarian reform program, which unlike previous social justice programs, covered sugar and coconut lands. The outline also
included a provision for the Stock Distribution Option (SDO), a mode of complying with the land reform law that did not
require actual transfer of the land to the tiller.
Then on March the 17th, 1988, the Government withdrew its case against the Cojuangcos. Corys appointee, Solicitor General
Frank Chavez, filed a motion for the Court of Appeals to dismiss the civil case the Marcos government filed and won at the
Manila Regional Trial Court against the Cojuangcos. The Department of Agrarian Reform and the GSIS, then headed by
Aquino appointees Philip Juico and Feliciano Sonny Belmonte, respectively, did not object to the motion to dismiss the case.
Added to this the Central Bank did not object to dismissal of case as it assumed that Luisita would be distributed anyway
through the upcoming Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
The Court of Appeals dismissed the case filed by the Marcos government against the Cojuangco-owned TADECO on May
18th, 1988. The Government itself, under Cory, moved to withdraw the finding that compelled TADECO to distribute land.
With this the Cojuangcos seemed to have achieved unencumbered sovereignty over Hacienda Luisita.
With the prior rulings safely negated President Aquino finally signed into law Republic Act No. 6657 or the Comprehensive
Agrarian Reform Law, on the 10th of June 1988. A clause in the agrarian reform program included SDO, which allows
landowners to give farmers shares of stock in a corporation instead of land.
On the 23rd of August 1988 TADECO established Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) to implement the distribution of stocks to
farmers in the Hacienda. The Cojuangcos justified Luisitas SDO by saying it was impractical to divide the Haciendas 4,915.75
hectares of land among 6,296 farm workers because this would give farmers less than one hectare of land each (or 0.78 hectares
of land per person), not near enough land to support a family.
From the beginning of 1989 the real crisis began on Hacienda Luisita. Lack of work and a population that had swollen well
above what the property could support led to abject poverty. The farm and refinery workers on the Hacienda were reliant on the
charity of the Cojuangcos for their very survival.
On May the 9th,1989, the Haciendas farm workers were asked to choose between stocks or land in a referendum. The SDO
won 92.9% of the vote. A second referendum and information campaign were held five months later and the SDO won again,
getting 96.75% of the vote.
Father Joaquin Bernas, a 1987 Constitutional Commission member, said in his June 27, 1989, column in The Manila Chronicle,
that Luisitas SDO is inconsistent with the Constitution. The [SDO] is a loophole because it does not support the Constitutions
desire that the right of farmers to become owners of the land they till should be promoted by government.
When the CARP was implemented in Hacienda Luisita on the 11th of May, 1989, the farm workersownership of the plantation
was pegged at 33 percent, while the Cojuangcos retained 67 percent. The SDO agreement spelled out a 30-year schedule for
transferring the stocks to the farm workers:
At the end of each fiscal year, for a period of 30 years, the SECOND PARTY (HLI) shall arrange with the FIRST PARTY
(TADECO) the acquisition and distribution to the THIRD PARTY (farm workers) on the basis of number of days worked and
at no cost to them of one-thirtieth (1/30) of 118,391,976.85 shares of the capital stock of the SECOND PARTY (HLI) that are
presently owned and held by the FIRST PARTY (TADECO), until such time as the entire block of 118,391,976.85 shares shall
have been completely acquired and distributed to the THIRD PARTY (farm workers).
On the 21st of November,1989, the Agrarian Reform Secretary Miriam Defensor-Santiago
approved the SDO agreement of Hacienda Luisita. However, Santiagos tenure at the DAR only lasted two months. In 2005,
Santiago, by then a senator, alleged Cory Aquino removed her from the position because of a comment she made to the media,
that Cory should inhibit herself from being the chairperson of the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC), which
approves SDO agreements.
The presidency of Cory Aquino came to an end on the 30th of June 1992, and she was replaced by Fidel Ramos, who had
essentially been her protector during the various coup attempts that punctuated her term. She left the entire region of Central
Luzon in complete disarray, with thousands still starving in the aftermath of the cataclysmic eruption of Mt Pinatubo a year
earlier, and the closure of the United States military bases, Clark air base in Pampanga and the Subic Bay naval facility in
Zambeles.

The reclassification of the land.
It was also in 1992 that Pedro Cojuangco, Don Pepes eldest son and administrator of the Hacienda, with tenure secured by the
stock distribution option, attempted to bring Luisita up to a point of profit. He initially attempted a variety of austerity measures,
all to little avail, as a sugar producing entity the Hacienda and the CAT would fail to record a profit until 2009, and then only
due to the temporary unreliability of the Brazilian sugar market.
It was apparent that diversification may be the key to the survival of Hacienda Luisita and on the 1st of September, 1995, the
Sangguniang Bayan of Tarlac (Provincial Board of Tarlac), under the leadership of the Governor of Tarlac Province, Margarita
Tingting Cojuangco, the wife of Jose Peping Cojuangco Jr., passed a resolution that reclassified 3,290 out of Hacienda
Luisitas viable 4,915 hectares, from agricultural to commercial, industrial, and residential land.
The Department of Agrarian Reform approved for conversion 500 hectares of the Luisita land on the 14th of August 1996.

The Hacienda Luisita Massacre
By 2003, with another member of the Central Luzon Oligarchy, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, installed in Malacanang Palace, the
farm workersdaily wage flattened at P194.50 and work days were down to one per week. The Hacienda workers then filed a
petition with the DAR to have the SDO agreement revoked.
On the 14th of October, 2003, workers from the HLI supervisory group petitioned the DAR to revoke the SDO, saying they
were not receiving the dividends and other benefits earlier promised to them. Two months later, a petition to revoke the SDO
bearing more than 5,300 signatures was filed by union officers at the DAR to revoke the SDO and stop land conversion in
Hacienda Luisita.
Throughout the month of July 2004, the union tried to negotiate a wage increase to P225 per day. Workers also asked that the
work days be increased to 2-3 days per week, instead of just once a week. The management disagreed, claiming that the
company was losing money, and that any increases would be impossible.
Then on the 1st of October, HLI management retrenched 327 farm workers, including union officers. This action resulted in
almost all 5,000 members of the United Luisita Workers Union (ULWU) and 700 members of Central Azucarera de Tarlac
Labor Union (CATLU), whos wage negotiations had stagnated at the time, staging a protest against the mass retrenchment, on
the 6th of November 2004. The ULWU strikers formed a picket at the main No1 Gate of the CAT, while the contingent from
the CATLU picketed Gate No. 2.
On November 10, 2004, four days after the strike started, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) declared an
Assumption of Jurisdiction. Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas announced that quelling the strike was a matter of national
interest because Luisita was one of the Countrys major sugar producers. The Assumption of Jurisdiction legally cleared the
way to use government troops to stop the strike. The picketers were ordered to vacate within five days, or else be removed by
force. The Unionists claimed that this decision was due to the Cojuangcos direct influence within the Malacanang Palace,
President Arroyo had initially entered political life in 1987 on the invitation of Cory Aquino and in her electoral success of just
6 months earlier had received assistance from both Noynoy and Kris Aquino ( Noynoys tv star sister), as well as their support
in her 2001 ousting of President Joseph Estrada on the back of corruption claims.
On the 15th of November to protect themselves from the forthcoming forcible removal, the workers called on the people in the
barrios around Hacienda Luisita to form a human barrier at the picket line, according to Lito Bais, current acting president of
ULWU. The villagers came, including priests, barangay officials, and children whose families sympathized with the workers.
Concerned groups from out of town also sent contingents to help protect the strikers.
On November 15, 2004, the Philippine National Police (PNP) returned as promised with reinforcements. According to reports
to the Senate, around 400 policemen tried to disperse about 4,000 protesters. CATLU president Ric Ramos was hit and
collapsed from a large head wound, but the police were still unable to break the picket.
At some point on the afternoon of the 15th, Union leaders were summoned to a meeting at the Makati home of Jose Peping
Cojuangco Jr., to attempt to resolve the issue. The Union representatives left for the meeting early on the morning of the 16th.
Upon arriving at Makati, the representatives of the CATLU were told that there would be no negotiations until the strike was
lifted. While the representatives of the ULWU, were refused entry as HLI management claimed, contrary to Philippine
Industrial Law, that as retrenched workers they were effectively disenfranchised from the process, refusing to allow them the
right to negotiate on behalf of their peers. Strike organizers later stated they they believed that this shambolic meeting was
nothing more than a ruse to allow the Government forces to organize their attack.
Upon returning to the picket at around 3.00 PM on the 16th of November, the Union Leaders were greeted by a sight
reminiscent of a war zone. In their absence the security forces had swelled to include, 2 tanks equipped with heavy weapons, a
payloader, 4 fire trucks with water cannon, 17 trucks full of soldiers in full battle dress, 700 policemen and snipers positioned in
at least 5 strategic locations.
he violence erupted when one of the tanks and the payloader broke through the number one gate, which had been locked by
management, and security forces began pelting the protesters with tear gas and water cannon infused with chemicals. The
protesters fought back, burying tear gas cannisters in the soil and hurling stones at their attackers with sling shots. Eventually
the water cannons and tear gas ran out and demonstrators, cheering their victory, surged forward, hurling rocks at the security
forces.
Gunfire erupted. The first spray of bullets lasted for a full minute, followed by a series of short sprays. At least 7 people were
killed and 121 injured, 32 by gunshot wounds. At the Senate inquiry held into the massacre on the 1st of December that year it
was revealed that an astounding 1,000 rounds were fired at the protesters. Doctors who autopsied the dead and examined the
wounded after the massacre reported that the victims had been shot whilst running away, crouching or lying down.
On the 17th of November, 2004, the day after the massacre, Tarlac Congressman and deputy speaker of the House, Benigno
Noynoy Aquino III, defended the dispersal in the House of Representatives, saying that its an illegal strike, no strike vote
was called. He added that police and soldiers were subjected to sniper fire from an adjacent Barangay. The PNP official
account of the massacre echoed the statements of Noynoy, however these assertions were debunked by evidence presented to
the Senate enquirey.
A month after the Hacienda Luisita massacre, picket lines were established around the Hacienda. Soon after, eight people who
supported the farmers cause or had evidence supporting their case were murdered one by one.
The killings began on December 8, 2004 with the death of Marcelino Beltran, a retired army officer turned peasant leader.
Beltran was assassinated in his house just before he was to testify about bullet trajectories at the Senate and Congress on
December 13 and 14, 2004.
On the 5th of January 2004, a group of 20 farm workers in a picket at the west gate of the Las Haciendas housing development
were fired upon by bodyguards of Congressman Noynoy Aquino. George Loveland and Ernesto Cruz were shot and injured in
the incident. Both men survived their injuries and testified before the Senate 7 days later. No charges were ever filed against
anyone.
Local Councilor Abelard Ladera, who had collected documents relating to the Hacienda Luisita SDO, with the intention of
tabling them before the senate was shot dead on the 3rd of March 2005.
his was followed by the assassination of Priest and Hacienda workers sympathizer Father William Tadena, who was shot dead
by a body guard of Noynoy Aquino on the 13th of March. This killing was witnessed by fellow priest Father Jun Flores, who
has gone into hiding for fear of his life.Then on the 17th of March 66 year old Victor Tataben Concepcion, an active
supporter of the strike, was shot dead outside his home.
The final murder of 2005 in Hacienda Luisita occurred on the 15th of October, when

Florentine Collante, a vocal critic of Noynoy Aquino and the Cojuangco family was assassinated, again by gunfire. The mood
inside the Hacienda through 2005 was one of fear and suspicion. Barangay officials undertook what security measures they
could including the banning of motorcyclists wearing helmets and bandannas obscuring their Identification, this was due to the
fact that most attacks were by motorcyclists. Signs like the one pictured above were put up throughout the Barangays of the
Hacienda and remain to this day (the above picture was taken in April 2012).However the security measures did not stop the
carnage. On the 17th of March, 2006, Tirso Cruz, the ULWU leader who led the protests against the incursion of the Subic,
Clark, Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX), known locally as the Noynoy Superhighway, on Hacienda Luisita land, was shot to
death in front of his father and brother.The bloodbath concluded with the murder of Bishop Alberto Ramento, supporter of the
Hacienda Luisita workers and vocal critic of the prior priest killing. He was stabbed 7 times by his assailants.To this day and in
spite of eye witness identification in two of these events, no charges have ever been filed against anyone in relation to any of
these crimes.

The 2005 Supreme Court Decision
The original petition the farm workers submitted lay dormant at the DAR since it was filed in December 2003, but began to
move after the November 2004 massacre. The DARs Task Force Luisita conducted an investigation and focus group
discussions among the farm workers, between the 25th of November 2004 and the 22nd of February, 2005.

In July 2005 the Cojuangco Aquinos open door to Malacanang Palace slammed shut, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
was angered that her former supporter, Cory Aquino, had joined the growing number of anti-Arroyo demonstrators, who were
alleging large scale corruption and plunder, as well as election fraud in the 2004 election against the President. The Arroyo-
Aquino alliance broke up on the same month Task Force Luisita submitted the findings and recommendations from its
investigation, which became the Governments basis for revoking Luisitas Stock Distribution Option (SDO) and ordering the
distribution of the Haciendas land to the farmers a few months later.
A special legal team was formed by the DAR in August 2005, to review the report submitted by Task Force Luisita. On
September the 22nd, 2005, Task Force Luisita recommended the revocation of the stock distribution agreement forged in May
1989, saying the SDO failed to fulfill the objectives of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law in regard to promoting social
justice and improving the lives of the farmers. So on the 22nd of December, 2005, PARC issued Resolution No. 2005-32-01,
ordering the revocation of Luisitas SDO agreement and the distribution of the Haciendas land to farmer beneficiaries.In
response to that ruling, HLI petitioned the Supreme Court (SC) to prevent the PARC from enforcing the resolution on the 1st of
February, 2006. The SC granted HLIs petition and issued a temporary restraining order, preventing the PARC from canceling
the SDO agreement in June of that year.Negotiations between the HLI management and some farmers began in June, 2007, after
representatives of AMBALA (the Luisita peasants group) and the Supervisory group wrote to DAR that they are amenable to an
out-of-court settlement.
The Presidency of Benigno Noynoy S Aquino III
Nonoy Aquino

Senator Noynoy Aquino launched his Presidential Campaign in Tarlac on the 9th of February ,2010. During his speach in his
family seat he made a commitment that Hacienda Luisita lands would be distributed to small farmers by 2014. Noynoy won the
Presidential election on a largely anti-corruption platform and was sworn into office as the 15th President of the Philippines on
June 30th, 2010.

On the 6th of August that year HLI and factions of farmers groups signed a compromise agreement giving the farmers the
chance to remain as HLI stockholders, or receive their share of Hacienda Luisita land. Many voted to retain their stocks and
receive cash from HLI, only to complain later that they got minuscule amounts.

This petition was countered on the 16th of August HLI petitioned the Supreme Court to approve the compromise deal on the
11th of August. but a faction of the farmers groups who asked the SC to junk the compromise deal because it was signed
before the SC had ruled on the validity of the stock distribution option (SDO), one of the two choices offered by HLI to the
farmers in the agreement (the other choice was land distribution). The rival faction also questioned the authority of the
signatories in the agreement to represent the plantations farmer-beneficiaries.

On the 18th of August, 2010, for the first time since the dispute was elevated to the SC in 2006, oral arguments on the Hacienda
Luisita case were heard.
The SC, in a landmark decision on July the 5th, 2011, upheld the PARCs order revoking HLI.s 1989 stock distribution plan.
Under the plan is the stock distribution option agreement that allowed farmers to pick between shares of stock and land. The SC
also ordered the DAR to administer the conduct of another referendum in which the 6,296 qualified farm worker beneficiaries
can vote whether they want to remain HLI stockholders or receive actual land.

The SC said that while the stock distribution plan is nullified, the qualified farmer beneficiaries must still be given the option to
choose if they want to remain as stockholders or not.

In summation the SC said, While the assailed PARC resolutions effectively nullifying the Hacienda Luisita SDP are upheld,
the revocation must, by application of the operative fact principle, give way to the right of the original 6,296 qualified FWBs to
choose whether they want to remain as HLI stockholders or not. The Court cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that in 1989, 93%
of the FWBs agreed to the SDOA, which became the basis of the SDP approved by PARC.
After this decision farmers groups intensified protests, while the Aquino
Administrationconcentrated on the Arroyo Administration corruption issue. Through July of 2011, farmers groups set up a
camp outside of the DAR Offices in Quezon City. Calls
Protesters demonstrating against the proposed third referendum on the Hacienda in 2011. Photo courtesy of Bullatlat

were made for the DAR to reject the SC order to conduct another referendum. Claims of bribery and coercion were made
against the Cojuangcos. UMA (agricultural union) Chair and ULWU President Lito Bais, claimed that HLI supervisor Juanito
Luna,was paying P5,000 ($116) to each farmer. Bais said the Cojuangco-Aquinos are now using the Supreme Court decision to
sow disunity in Hacienda Luisita.

President Aquinos uncle Jose Peping Cojuangco Jr., summoned the heads of the 10 barangays of Hacienda Luisita.
Cojuangco had previously made the charge that outsiders and leftists are stirring controversy over the High Courts decision.
Cojuangco said that he was dismayed by the declaration of farmers groups that the sprawling sugar plantation in Tarlac should
be distributed to them via agrarian reform despite the high courts ruling.Who are these people but outsiders and leftists.
Theyre the ones who want to bring President Aquino down and destabilize our country, he was quoted by the media.

On the 20th of July AMBALA filed a motion for reconsideration, on the Supreme Court decision ordering the Department of
Agrarian Reform to hold a referendum in Hacienda Luisita and allow the farmers to choose between owning shares of stocks or
land parcels. In asking the SC to reverse its decision, the AMBALA said, there is no reason for the Court to declare that the
Stock Distribution Option Agreement (SDOA) was not revoked and that it was only the Stock Distribution Plan (SDP) and
Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) resolution approving it that was canceled.

On the 28th of July farmers groups led by AMBALA spokesperson Rodel Mesa, called on the newly appointed ombudsman,
retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales, to reopen the Luisita Massacre case. Mesa said that after
seven years, not a single government or armed forces official has been held liable for the massacre and or for the injuries
sustained by hundreds of others when elements strongly suspected of being members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines
(AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) opened fire on the farmworkers manning the picket line in front of the sugar
mill Central Azucarera de Tarlac. The farmworkers were at the time holding a strike demanding that the management led by
President Benigno Aquino IIIs Cojuangco relatives proceed with negotiations for a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) and
reinstate almost 320 members and newly elected United Luisita Workers Union (ULWU) officials who were fired for
participating in the strike.

On the 24th of November the SC released its decision on the farmers petition for reconsideration. Voting 14-0, the SC granted
their petition and unanimously ordered the distribution of 4,916 hectares of Hacienda Luisita lands to the original 4,296 original
farmworker beneficiaries (FWBs). It modified its July 5, 2011 ruling ordering the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to
hold a referendum to let the Luisita farmers choose between owning shares of stocks in Hacienda Luisita Inc. or getting portions
of the more than 6,000-hectare estate.

After the SC issued its ruling President Aquino said there should be just compensation for the land owners. When asked by
media to react on the SC decision, Aquino said, In agrarian reform, there are two objectives: number one, empower the farmers
so that they could have their own land to till. Second, dont exhaust the capital. There should be just compensation for the land
owner. The capital that will be returned to the landowner could be used to invest in other endeavors.

HLI, whilst saying that they would adhere to the SC decision filed an injunction seeking compensation at 2006 prices, as
opposed to the 1989 land prices specified in the ruling. In essence HLI were seeking compensation of around P 10 billion.
President Aquino, speaking on behalf of HLI asserted that this request for compensation was for the benefit of all stock holders,
which was inclusive of the farmers who had taken up shares in the company under the SDO.

On the 24th of April, 2012, as the impeachment trial of SC Chief Justice Renato Corona was taking place in the Senate. The SC
ruled in finality, confirming their November 24th ,2011, decision that the land be distributed to the farmers with
compensation at November the 21st ,1989, prices.

On the 29th of May, 2012, Renato Corona, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, was found guilty in his impeachment trial, by
Senate, convened as an impeachment court. Corona was deemed to be guilty of Article 2 of the initial 8 articles of impeachment
(5 of the 8 articles of impeachment were withdrawn by the prosecution on the 29th of February, of the remaining 3, 2 were
directly concerned with impartiality in regard to former President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo), betrayal of public trust and / or
culpable violation of the constitution on the second article of impeachment, that he failed to disclosed to the public his
statement of assets, liabilities and net worth as required under the constitution. In spite of Coronas legal argument, that this
issue concerned his non-declaration of US Dollar accounts, which were exempt from disclosure under legislation passed in
1973, which he claimed to still be valid as his dollar holdings represented investment accounts that he and his wife had initiated
in 1967.

The Corona impeachment had been launched under the Aquino governments supposed pursuit of justice for the reported
crimes, corruption and abuses linked to former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Corona is known as a staunch political ally
of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. His career and wealth reportedly flourished under Arroyo, culminating in his being named as
Supreme Court Justice in the last few weeks of Arroyos disputed term, and after the 2010 poll, in what is known in the
Philippines as a midnight appointment.

The National Union of Peoples Lawyers (NUPL) said Filipinos had supported the impeachment complaint against Corona
primarily because they view Corona as a hindrance in the peoples drive to hold Arroyo accountable for her crimes against the
people. Secretary General of the NUPL, Edra Olalia stated that After the failed attempt to smuggle Arroyo out of the country
through an arbitrarily issued temporary restraining order on the hold departure order issued by the Department of Justice against
Arroyo, the people called and sought for an independent Supreme Court and a pro-people judiciary. As the impeachment
unfolded, critics such as the NUPL noted that for Aquino, the impeachment is apparentlynot so much about Coronas
subservience to Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo nor his role and influence in the Supreme Courts alleged accommodation of Arroyo
as it is about Hacienda Luisita.

WIKIPEDIA

Spanish era
Hacienda Luisita was once part of the holdings of Compaa General de Tabacos de Filipinas,
[2]
Sociedad Annima, better
known as Tabacalera, which was founded on 26 November 1881 by a Spaniard, Antonio Lpez y Lpez
from Comillas, Cantabria and , Don Guillermo Rubio born in Santander, Cantabria. He was the first Marques de Comillasand
was an associate of the first Spanish Prime Minister with foreign blood, the Spanish-Filipino mestizo Don Marcelo Azcrraga y
Palmero.
His relative on his Spanish side, Ricardo Padilla, married Gloria Zbel y Montojo (younger half sister of Mercedes Zbel de
Ayala de McMicking, largest Zbel owner in the Ayala group of companies) and was an aide-de-camp of Juan de Borbn,
Count of Barcelona, father of the King of Spain, His Majesty Don Juan Carlos de todos los Santos de Borbn y Borbn-Dos
Sicilias.
The estate was named after Antonio's wife, Luisa Bru y Lasss.
Their son, Claudio Lpez, the second to hold the title, donated some of the profits to the Jesuits to create the Pontifical
University of Comillas, a university outside Madrid. Lpez acquired the estate in 1882, a year before his death. Lpez was a
financial genius
[according to whom?]
who parlayed his work in Cuba and Latin America into steamship companies and trading
businesses. He was the most influential Spanish businessman of his generation
[according to whom?]
and counted the Prime Minister
and the King of Spain as his personal friends. Tabacalera was a private enterprise he founded with the sole intention of taking
over the Philippine Tobacco Monopoly from the Spanish colonial government. This included the Hacienda Antonio (named
after his eldest son), Hacienda San Fernando and Hacienda Isabel (named after his eldest daughter)
in Cagayn and Isabela provinces where the legendary La Flor de Isabela cigar was cultivated. Tabacaleras incorporators were
the Sociedad General de Crdito Inmobiliario Espaol, Banque de Paris which is now Paribas and Bank of the Netherlands
which is now ABN-AMRO. The sugar and tobacco in the Philippines were the reason why the Lpez de Comillas family were
able to donate such a huge pontifical university to the Jesuits on top of lavishing on their home, the Palacio de
Sobrellano in Comillas and the Gell park (designed by Gaud) inBarcelona.
Don Alfonso Gell y Martos born in 1958, the fourth Marquis of Comillas, currently holds the title. He is also the Count of San
Pedro de Ruiseada, the third to hold that title. Both are grandee status in Spain and as such can address the King as "mi primo"
or "my cousin."
American period
Spanish-owned Hacienda Luisita did not languish when the Americans took full control of the Philippine government.
Tabacalera as a whole experienced prosperous times. With Cuban sugar not enough for the American market, American
companies turned to the Philippines for sugarcane. At one point, Hacienda Luisita supplied almost 20% of all sugar in the
United States. Luisita sugar became popular among Filipino (specifically Ilocano) expatriates in America just as much as
Victorias sugar was popular among Manilas elite circles.
Americans brought the centrifugal-based machinery which doubled the production of the estate and therefore did not require the
cane to be loaded onto a truck to Laguna to be squeezed in the haciendas there, including those of the Roxas and Zbel families.
As this new technology swept Luzon and the sugar mills consolidated, many wealthy families lost their land or combined their
resources. Some like Honorio Ventura (who paid for Diosdado Macapagals schooling), the De Lens, Urquicos, Lazatns and
the Gonzlez did just that--- which is how PASUDECO came into being. Structurally, there was little change in the hacienda;
Tabacalera y Compaa positioned Spanish-Filipino and American-Filipinoencargados and administradores to manage the vast
estate.
Japanese regime
Like all haciendas and tabacaleras in the Philippines, the Hacienda Luisita continued to operate during the Japanese occupation.
The Japanese were bent on ensuring that commodities such as sugar and rice be made available to the majority of the Filipinos,
therefore avoiding any tempers of additional insurgencies and guerilla movements. The Spanish-Filipino administrators simply
placed their subordinates, Japanese journeymen (who, like many impoverished Chinese immigrants from Fujian fled south to
the Philippines for a better life) and Korean stevedores working as machinists in the centrifugal system, to the helm. This kept
both the Japanese and the Spanish in good terms as both their interests were protected. As a matter of fact, even before World
War II, the Tabacalera had in their pay-roll a good number of Japanese migrant workers doing odd jobs around Hacienda
Luisita. (Before 1942, the Philippines was a first class colony in Asia while Hong Kong and Singapore were poor
cities; Tokyo and Japan as a whole was relatively closed from the outside world then). When the Japanese Imperial Army
marched into the country, these lowly migrant workers became valuable translators and managers.
MacArthur Headquarters
In conjunction with re-taking the Philippines from the Japanese, on 25 January 1945 General Douglas MacArthur moved his
advanced headquarters forward to Hacienda Luisita.
Jos Cojuangco period
In the 1950s, the onset of the Hukbalahap rebellion led the Spanish owners of Tabacalera to sell Hacienda Luisita and the sugar
mill Central Azucarera de Tarlac. Ramn Magsaysay, then president of the Philippines, blocked the sale of the plantation to the
eager and wealthy Lpez of Ilolo. During those times the brothers Fernando Lpez andEugenio Lpez as well as their cousins
were one of the wealthiest in all of the Visayas Islands, save for a few Chinese Filipino families in Ceb and Leyte, as well as
the Familias Aliadas de Villegas, Teves, Lpez, y Rodrguez (a family with origins from Santander, Galicia, & Asturias; as well
as China - Teves). Fearing the Lpez might become too powerful after already owning Meralco, Negros Navigation, Manila
Chronicle, ABS-CBN, various haciendas in Western Visayas and then the nearby PASUMIL consortium in del
Carmen,Pampanga that they purchased from the Americans, the President offered the property to Jos Cojuangco, nicknamed
"Pepe" through Magsaysay protg and Cojuangco's son-in-law, Benigno Aquino. Magsaysay also knew the Cojuangcos
through his wife, Luz, of the prosperous Banzns, an old Chinese Filipino family. Unfortunately, President Ramn
Magsaysay died in Mount Manunggal, Ceb in 1957.
The sale was consummated in President Carlos P. Garcas term, a close ally of then Senator Ferdinand Marcos and five years
from the day President Magsaysay offered the land. The Jos Cojuangcos were wealthy in land and bank holdings and in
Philippine pesos. They were not wealthy in United States dollars which was closely regulated then by the Philippine Central
Bank. In fact, Pepe and his wife Metring were not able to send Pepes younger brother Eduardo Sr. (Danding Cojuangcos
father) to the United States for treatment for the mere fact that they could not exchange their pesos to dollars. Eduardo Sr or
Endeng Lalake later died of kidney failure.
The Jos Cojuangcos acquired the property in 1958 through a loan from the Government Service Insurance System and a dollar
loan from the Manufacturers Trust Company ofNew York, which was guaranteed by the Central Bank of the Philippines, with
consent from Miguel Cuaderno, its governor. Pepe also reduced his stake in the Paniqui Sugar Mills, though he and his cousins
still managed it on behalf of his aunt, Ysidra Cojuangco, the matriarch. Hacienda Luisita was the largest investment he ever
made.
With the ink barely dry, he appointed not his eldest son Pedro but his son-in-law Benigno Aquino Jr as administrator. Pepe and
Ninoy introduced an almost social welfare state: free medicines and check up, scholarships to colleges, free education, free food
and equitable shares to the harvest, free child care and nutrition, free burials, a village with housing earmarked for the farmers,
even free gasoline to the tractoras. Like the Paniqui Sugar Mills, not a single workers strike was instigated during their
administration. Pepe barely made any money from the Hacienda Luisita. Understanding that the value of the Luisita is in the
farmers who till it, he chose to rehabilitate the Filipinos who before were almost slaves under the Tabacalera. He was able to
sustain these losses due in part of his other more money making investments in the Bank of Commerce and First Manila
Management which owned the Pantranco buses and the Mantrade group.
Marcos period
In 1965,INC members who are workers are evicted by Luisita Worker's Union after disputes in promotions.They are resettled in
Nueva Ecija.As Ferdinand Marcos was elected for a second term in 1969, the reverse happened to Pepe. At Bank of Commerce,
where he and his brother Juan "Itoy" Cojuangco and nephews Ramon Cojuangco (later of PLDT; son of brother Antonio
Cojuangco Sr) and Danding Cojuangco (eldest son of deceased brother Eduardo Cojuangco Sr) each owned equitable stakes,
the last three factions planned a coup d etat by toppling him from the presidency of the said bank. The three did not want Pedro
(Pepes first born) to be bank president which was against the aging Pepes wishes. To avoid a scandal, Pepe Cojuangco sold his
remaining shares in Bank of Commerce, almost equal to 28%, to his relatives. Thus Pepe lost his one of eventually three
lifelines in nurturing the Hacienda Luisita.
As the 1970s crept in and immediately after Benigno Aquino Jr imprisonment for treason, murder, subversion and weapons
possession, Pepes business empire began to wane. He was unable to purchase new machines and new technology for the aging
sugar mill that stands in the middle of the estate because of the governments refusal to Pantrancos appeals for higher charges
as compared to its competitors who have since been permitted so. Business critics believed it was Marcoss way of pressuring
Pepe to influence his son-in-law from attacking him and his wife, First Lady Imelda Marcos(who recently built the Cultural
Center of the Philippines and whom Ninoy labeled as the new Evita Peron). His close business associate in First Manila
Management of the Pantranco / Nissan Philippines / Mantrade fame, Manuel Lopa, died in 1974. With his death, the FMMC-
Mantrade companies lost their immunity from the Marcoses (Manuel was a close personal friend of Speaker Daniel Romuldez,
Imelda's uncle). Ambassador Benjamin Romualdez, brother of Imelda, then coerced Pepe and his son-in-law, Ricardo "Baby"
Lopa (Manuels son) into selling the collection of 38 companies under First Manila Management to him. Baby and his wife
Teresita Cojuangco, together with Pepe and the rest of the Lopa heirs, had no choice but to sell. The second lifeline disappeared
with this extortion.
In 1976, First United Bank, the banking concern Pepe built on his own after his ouster from the family owned Bank of
Commerce which he saved from bankruptcy decades ago, was sold for an amicable amount to his nephew, Danding Cojuangco,
who was then close to President Marcos, with both mothers being Ilocanas notwithstanding. The poorest branch of the
Cojuangcos, the Eduardo branch, has become the richest through the sheer genius of Danding. Though this third lifeline
disappeared in good terms, the Jos Cojuangcos were left with nothing but a half-rehabilitated and barely earning white
elephant of a hacienda. Practically all of his farm workers mourned his death. Many flooded his funeral Mass to see him off.




THE CASE DIGEST OF ISSUES

On July 5, 2011, the Supreme Court en banc voted unanimously (11-0) to DISMISS/DENY the petition filed by HLI
and AFFIRM with MODIFICATIONS the resolutions of the PARC revoking HLIs Stock Distribution Plan (SDP) and placing
the subject lands in Hacienda Luisita under compulsory coverage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) of
the government.

The Court however did not order outright land distribution. Voting 6-5, the Court noted that there are operative facts
that occurred in the interim and which the Court cannot validly ignore. Thus, the Court declared that the revocation of the SDP
must, by application of the operative fact principle, give way to the right of the original 6,296 qualified farmworkers-
beneficiaries (FWBs) to choose whether they want to remain as HLI stockholders or [choose actual land distribution]. It thus
ordered the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to immediately schedule meetings with the said 6,296 FWBs and explain
to them the effects, consequences and legal or practical implications of their choice, after which the FWBs will be asked to
manifest, in secret voting, their choices in the ballot, signing their signatures or placing their thumbmarks, as the case may be,
over their printed names.

The parties thereafter filed their respective motions for reconsideration of the Court decision.

II. THE ISSUES

(1) Is the operative fact doctrine available in this case?
(2) Is Sec. 31 of RA 6657 unconstitutional?
(3) Cant the Court order that DARs compulsory acquisition of Hacienda Lusita cover the full 6,443 hectares allegedly covered by
RA 6657 and previously held by Tarlac Development Corporation (Tadeco), and not just the 4,915.75 hectares covered by
HLIs SDP?
(4) Is the date of the taking (for purposes of determining the just compensation payable to HLI) November 21, 1989, when PARC
approved HLIs SDP?
(5) Has the 10-year period prohibition on the transfer of awarded lands under RA 6657 lapsed on May 10, 1999 (since Hacienda
Luisita were placed under CARP coverage through the SDOA scheme on May 11, 1989), and thus the qualified FWBs should
now be allowed to sell their land interests in Hacienda Luisita to third parties, whether they have fully paid for the lands or not?
(6) THE CRUCIAL ISSUE: Should the ruling in the July 5, 2011 Decision that the qualified FWBs be given an option to remain
as stockholders of HLI be reconsidered?

III. THE RULING

[The Court PARTIALLY GRANTED the motions for reconsideration of respondents PARC, et al. with respect to the
option granted to the original farmworkers-beneficiaries (FWBs) of Hacienda Luisita to remain with petitioner HLI, which
option the Court thereby RECALLED and SET ASIDE. It reconsidered its earlier decision that the qualified FWBs should be
given an option to remain as stockholders of HLI, and UNANIMOUSLY directed immediate land distribution to the qualified
FWBs.]

1. YES, the operative fact doctrine is applicable in this case.

[The Court maintained its stance that the operative fact doctrine is applicable in this case since, contrary to the
suggestion of the minority, the doctrine is not limited only to invalid or unconstitutional laws but also applies to decisions made
by the President or the administrative agencies that have the force and effect of laws. Prior to the nullification or recall of said
decisions, they may have produced acts and consequences that must be respected. It is on this score that the operative fact
doctrine should be applied to acts and consequences that resulted from the implementation of the PARC Resolution approving
the SDP of HLI. The majority stressed that the application of the operative fact doctrine by the Court in its July 5, 2011
decision was in fact favorable to the FWBs because not only were they allowed to retain the benefits and homelots they received
under the stock distribution scheme, they were also given the option to choose for themselves whether they want to remain as
stockholders of HLI or not.]

2. NO, Sec. 31 of RA 6657 NOT unconstitutional.

[The Court maintained that the Court is NOT compelled to rule on the constitutionality of Sec. 31 of RA 6657,
reiterating that it was not raised at the earliest opportunity and that the resolution thereof is not the lis mota of the case.
Moreover, the issue has been rendered moot and academic since SDO is no longer one of the modes of acquisition under RA
9700. The majority clarified that in its July 5, 2011 decision, it made no ruling in favor of the constitutionality of Sec. 31 of RA
6657, but found nonetheless that there was no apparent grave violation of the Constitution that may justify the resolution of the
issue of constitutionality.]

3. NO, the Court CANNOT order that DARs compulsory acquisition of Hacienda Lusita cover the full 6,443 hectares and not
just the 4,915.75 hectares covered by HLIs SDP.

[Since what is put in issue before the Court is the propriety of the revocation of the SDP, which only involves 4,915.75
has. of agricultural land and not 6,443 has., then the Court is constrained to rule only as regards the 4,915.75 has. of
agricultural land.Nonetheless, this should not prevent the DAR, under its mandate under the agrarian reform law, from
subsequently subjecting to agrarian reform other agricultural lands originally held by Tadeco that were allegedly not
transferred to HLI but were supposedly covered by RA 6657.

However since the area to be awarded to each FWB in the July 5, 2011 Decision appears too restrictive considering
that there are roads, irrigation canals, and other portions of the land that are considered commonly-owned by farmworkers,
and these may necessarily result in the decrease of the area size that may be awarded per FWB the Court reconsiders its
Decision and resolves to give the DAR leeway in adjusting the area that may be awarded per FWB in case the number of actual
qualified FWBs decreases. In order to ensure the proper distribution of the agricultural lands of Hacienda Luisita per qualified
FWB, and considering that matters involving strictly the administrative implementation and enforcement of agrarian reform
laws are within the jurisdiction of the DAR, it is the latter which shall determine the area with which each qualified FWB will
be awarded.

On the other hand, the majority likewise reiterated its holding that the 500-hectare portion of Hacienda Luisita that
have been validly converted to industrial use and have been acquired by intervenors Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation
(RCBC) and Luisita Industrial Park Corporation (LIPCO), as well as the separate 80.51-hectare SCTEX lot acquired by the
government, should be excluded from the coverage of the assailed PARC resolution. The Court however ordered that the
unused balance of the proceeds of the sale of the 500-hectare converted land and of the 80.51-hectare land used for the SCTEX
be distributed to the FWBs.]

4. YES, the date of taking is November 21, 1989, when PARC approved HLIs SDP.

[For the purpose of determining just compensation, the date of taking is November 21, 1989 (the date when PARC
approved HLIs SDP) since this is the time that the FWBs were considered to own and possess the agricultural lands in
Hacienda Luisita. To be precise, these lands became subject of the agrarian reform coverage through the stock distribution
scheme only upon the approval of the SDP, that is, on November 21, 1989. Such approval is akin to a notice of coverage
ordinarily issued under compulsory acquisition. On the contention of the minority (Justice Sereno) that the date of the notice of
coverage [after PARCs revocation of the SDP], that is, January 2, 2006, is determinative of the just compensation that HLI is
entitled to receive, the Court majority noted that none of the cases cited to justify this position involved the stock distribution
scheme. Thus, said cases do not squarely apply to the instant case. The foregoing notwithstanding, it bears stressing that the
DAR's land valuation is only preliminary and is not, by any means, final and conclusive upon the landowner. The landowner
can file an original action with the RTC acting as a special agrarian court to determine just compensation. The court has the
right to review with finality the determination in the exercise of what is admittedly a judicial function.]

5. NO, the 10-year period prohibition on the transfer of awarded lands under RA 6657 has NOT lapsed on May 10, 1999; thus,
the qualified FWBs should NOT yet be allowed to sell their land interests in Hacienda Luisita to third parties.

[Under RA 6657 and DAO 1, the awarded lands may only be transferred or conveyed after 10 years from
the issuance and registration of the emancipation patent (EP) or certificate of land ownership award (CLOA). Considering that
the EPs or CLOAs have not yet been issued to the qualified FWBs in the instant case, the 10-year prohibitive period has not
even started. Significantly, the reckoning point is the issuance of the EP or CLOA, and not the placing of the agricultural lands
under CARP coverage. Moreover, should the FWBs be immediately allowed the option to sell or convey their interest in the
subject lands, then all efforts at agrarian reform would be rendered nugatory, since, at the end of the day, these lands will just
be transferred to persons not entitled to land distribution under CARP.]

6. YES, the ruling in the J uly 5, 2011 Decision that the qualified FWBs be given an option to remain as stockholders of HLI
should be reconsidered.

[The Court reconsidered its earlier decision that the qualified FWBs should be given an option to remain as
stockholders of HLI, inasmuch as these qualified FWBs will never gain control [over the subject lands] given the present
proportion of shareholdings in HLI. The Court noted that the share of the FWBs in the HLI capital stock is [just] 33.296%.
Thus, even if all the holders of this 33.296% unanimously vote to remain as HLI stockholders, which is unlikely, control will
never be in the hands of the FWBs. Control means the majority of [sic] 50% plus at least one share of the common shares and
other voting shares. Applying the formula to the HLI stockholdings, the number of shares that will constitute the majority is
295,112,101 shares (590,554,220 total HLI capital shares divided by 2 plus one [1] HLI share). The 118,391,976.85 shares
subject to the SDP approved by PARC substantially fall short of the 295,112,101 shares needed by the FWBs to acquire control
over HLI.]