CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—Department of Agrarian Reform officials in Central Luzon on Tuesday agreed to the demand of Hacienda Luisita workers to be involved in the validation of potential beneficiaries of lands within the sugar estate.
Thirty leaders of the United Luisita Workers Union (Ulwu), representing over 5,000 farmers at the Cojuangco family-owned estate in Tarlac, clinched the agreement during a three-hour dialogue here.
Ulwu demanded to be part of the process after complaining that DAR teams did not coordinate with union officials.
“Most of those that they seek out for interviews are barangay captains and officials of BARC (barangay agrarian reform councils), many of whom are partial to the management or to the Cojuangcos,” said Rene Galang, Ulwu president.
The lands are scheduled for distribution in June.
Teofilo Inocencio, DAR regional director, and Alfredo Reyes, DAR provincial chief, gave Galang until April 20 to submit the union’s master list of proposed beneficiaries.
In DAR’s master list are names of beneficiaries of the stock distribution option scheme that the government revoked in December last year, or after more than 10 years, to give way to actual ownership of the property by farm workers.
Ulwu officials were also allowed to participate in the verification work by DAR teams in 10 villages covered by the estate in Tarlac City, Concepcion and La Paz towns.
Joseph Canlas, chair of the Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon, said the final list of beneficiaries should exclude those who did not support the strike that saw 14 leaders and members killed since November 2004.
Inocencio said the DAR has the final say on who would qualify beneficiaries based on the criteria set under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
Reyes served the notice of CARP coverage of Hacienda Luisita on Jan. 2.
As of last week, Inocencio said the lots at the estate have been “all accounted for.”
This means that the copies of all the land titles have been obtained from the Register of Deeds.
DAR records showed that the estate totaled 5,938.1 hectares. Of these, at least 4,873.8 has. were eligible for CARP. Another 1,025.6 has were cancelled while 38.57 has were used for roads and canals.