Conditions of farm workers in Hacienda Luisita:
Rich soil for revolution

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

"The only solution to the problems faced by the farm workers of Hacienda Luisita is agrarian revolution within the framework of the national-democratic struggle." � Pambansang Katipunan ng mga Magbubukid

Farm workers have been waging continuous mass actions since May 20 against new policies imposed on them by Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI). Thousands of peasants from 10 barrios covered by the hacienda have joined such actions. Violent confrontations have erupted due to provocations from a composite force of military, police and CAFGU elements and hacienda guards who have jointly been brutalizing the workers.

The 6,000-hectare Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac is owned by Peping Cojuangco and former president Corazon Aquino�s clan. Since the Aquino regime, succeeding regimes have all touted the hacienda as a showcase of the government�s supposed gains in agrarian reform. The hacienda�s 5,228 farm workers have all been used as pawns in various schemes hatched by various governments to circumvent agrarian reform. In the latter part of the 1980s, the hacienda began implementing the land-distribution scheme, which quickly gave way to the stock-distribution scheme. The state tagged each of these schemes a "success" and a "model" in implementing agrarian reform. But for the hacienda�s farm workers, each scheme imposed on them meant added suffering and exploitation.

On May 13, the HLI imposed new labor policies that have led the farm workers to wage collective action. Due to a new rotation scheme, each farm worker is now entitled to work for only three hours a week or for two to three days a month and will receive a P73 weekly wage or P291.75 a month. Overtime is now prohibited and farm workers will not be given work during the rainy season. This violates the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) entered into by the union and HLI management. The CBA guarantees that each worker shall be employed by the hacienda six or seven days a week and receive a daily wage of P194.50 for an eight-hour working day.

The new policies likewise stipulate that HLI shall take in 144 farm workers weekly from each barangay. This violates the CBA�s terms stating that 523 persons should be taken in daily from each barangay.

The daily living standard for a family of six outside Metro Manila is P396.00 or P12,000 per month. This means that HLI intends to starve the farm workers and their families to death with its proposed monthly wage of P291.75 (or an average of less than P10.00 per day). Worse, the farm workers will also be deprived of income during the rainy season.

To complete his exploitative scheme, Peping Cojuangco uses the military and police to brutalize the farm workers. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, congressman for the second district of Tarlac and former president Aquino�s son, has pushed the formation of squads of civilian security forces under the CAFGU. Cojuangco also uses the 69th IB as a private army to protect the hacienda against the people waging protests. HLI likewise connives with the courts in threatening to file criminal cases against 14 farm workers in relation to the violence that erupted in the first half of June. The United Luisita Workers� Union, a yellow union led by Francisco "Boy" Sigua, is being used by HLI to betray the workers� resistance.

The struggle of Hacienda Luisita�s farm workers led by the Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (AMBALA) has gained the people�s support. The Central Azucarera de Tarlac Labor Union, the biggest organized workers� group in Tarlac, and the Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Tarlac, a provincial affiliate of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, have both expressed their support.

The hacienda workers� severely exploitative and oppressive conditions and the employment of instruments of violence to deprive them of their rights have pushed them to go all-out in advancing their struggle.

July 2002
English Edition

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