THE long wait may be over for the more than 10,000 farmers who have been waiting for the Supreme Court’s final resolution of the more than 20-year-old land dispute involving Hacienda Luisita, a 6,453-hectare sugar plantation owned by the family of President Aquino.
The land-dispute case is once again included in the Supreme Court’s (SC) long list of cases scheduled to be tackled and resolved by the magistrates, led by Chief Justice Renato Corona, during their regular en banc (full-court) session on Tuesday.
Earlier, Court Administrator and spokesman Jose Midas Marquez said the different opinions of the justices are being circulated among them so they could come up with a majority ruling on the case.
Marquez also said Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr., who has been assigned to the case, already has a draft decision, but this would still be put to a vote along with the other opinions of some justices.
“The opinions of the justices are already circulating, and they are set to vote on this in the next [full-court] session,” Marquez said.
The Court is expected to rule on the legality of the order issued by the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC), which revoked the stock-distribution option (SDO) scheme offered to the farmer-beneficiaries of Hacienda Luisita, in lieu of land distribution that is stipulated by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
The Court will rule on whether PARC has the jurisdiction and authority to revoke the SDO agreement, and if so, on what basis; also if PARC can still validly revoke the option 16 years after it was executed, without violating due process and the nonimpairment guaranty.
In 2006 the High Court issued a temporary restraining order stopping both PARC and the Department of Agrarian Reform from placing Hacienda Luisita under the coverage of CARP.
Last year the Court held oral arguments on the issues involved in the case. It created a three-man panel, headed by retired SC Justice Ma. Alicia Austria Martinez, to mediate between Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) and the farmer-beneficiaries.
But the panel suspended its proceedings when the parties could not come to terms.
Also last year, a compromise agreement was signed by HLI and farmer-leaders Noel Mallari, president of Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid ng Hacienda Luisita; Eldifonso Pingol, vice president of the United Luisita Workers Union; and Julio Suniga and Windsor Andaya of the HLI Supervisory Group, in an effort to end the dispute.
Under the agreement, the farmer-beneficiaries were given an option to choose to stay with the SDO, as agreed upon in the 1989 memorandum of agreement or would proceed with land distribution.
The farm workers who opt for land distribution would return to the Tarlac Development Corp., being the original owners, all HLI shares given to them. In lieu of the shares, land shall be given to them for free.
The result of the census, which started from August 6 to August 10, 2010, revealed that out of the 10,502 farm workers, 7,441 signed the compromise agreement representing more than 70 percent.
Of the 7,441 farmers, 7,302 or 98.13 percent voted for SDO; the remaining 139 voted for land distribution.
But a group of farmer-beneficiaries of the hacienda opposed the agreement and asked the Court to junk it for being contrary to law and public policy. The agreement, they said, aimed to preempt the Court from acting on the issue of the legality of the SDO scheme.
