THE government, through the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), will ask the Supreme Court (SC) to reverse its decision for yet another referendum to decide the fate of the stock-distribution option at the Hacienda Luisita.

Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes said the motion for reconsideration will ask the High Tribunal to “take a closer look” at the case, believing that “there is no gray area in what the law says about the stock-distribution option.”

Solicitor General Joel Cadiz, according to de los Reyes, will file the motion on the basis of Section 31 of Republic Act 6657, or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988, which states that “if within two years from the approval of this Act, the land or stock transfer envisioned … is not made or realized or the plan for such stock distribution approved by the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council [PARC] within the same period, the agricultural land of the corporate owners or the corporation shall be subject to the compulsory coverage of this Act.”

The SC decision of July 5 invalidated the stock plan and decided to put the disputed land under another referendum to allow the original 6,296 farmer-beneficiaries to choose between stocks or a piece of the 4,915.75-hectare portion of the more than 6,000-hectares Cojuangco sugar estate in Tarlac.

In that decision the SC upheld, with modification, the December 22, 2005, resolution of the PARC that revoked the stock transfer and denied the petition of the Hacienda Luisita Inc. “Following this provision, the disputed Hacienda Luisita land should have been distributed to the farmers in 1990 and considering that the SC itself ruled that the SDP was flawed from the start,” it said.

De los Reyes appealed to Hacienda Luisita farmers for sobriety, following reports the farmers would stage a massive street protest rejecting the SC decision.

“The DAR believes that lands, and not stocks, should be given to the farmers.  The law itself called for the distribution of the land,” he said, citing the failure of HLI to, among many violations of the terms and conditions of the approved SDO, distribute the shares of stock within the prescribed period.

The Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita and the Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA), meanwhile, called on the DAR to defy the SC order and push for the distribution of Hacienda Luisita to the farmer-beneficiaries.

“We urge the DAR not to heed the unlawful and deceptive decision of the High Court but instead do their mandate to serve the interest of the farm workers of Hacienda Luisita as beneficiaries of land reform,” the groups said in a joint statement.

They said the referendum that the Supreme Court prescription to end the land row in Hacienda Luisita diminishes the agency’s duty of ensuring the poor and landless farmers’ access to land, and perpetuates social injustice.

“The High Tribunal has [lost] its ability to act on reason by acting as the instrument of the Cojuangcos in considering them as aggrieved party,” the statement said, adding the SC order was “callous” and “insulting.”

“Land distribution in the first place is the reason why their agency exists. That is why we are urging the DAR to rally in support of Hacienda Luisita’s free distribution to its farm worker- beneficiaries,” it said.

Also, the farmers are accusing the Cojuangco family of employing bribery and coercion to influence the magistrates into voting for the stock-distribution option over land distribution.

“The Cojuangco-Aquinos are now employing brazen bribery and coercion to preserve its stranglehold over Hacienda Luisita,” said KMP Secretary-General Danilo Ramos.

UMA Chairman Lito Bais said a certain Juanito Luna, a supervisor of HLI, was paying P5,000 each farmer, apparently to convince them to vote for the stock-distribution option that will allow a status quo.

“The SC decision only bolstered the Cojuangco-Aquinos’ divide-and-rule strategy. This is a preview of things to come once the SC-ordered referendum pushes through,” Bais added.

Meanwhile, the KMP, UMA and ULWU assailed HLI co-owner Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr., the President’s uncle, who accused “outsiders and leftists” of stirring up the controversy on the Supreme Court decision.