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We will not retreat just because some of us were killed! Justice for the martyrs of Hacienda Luisita! Junk the stock distribution option (SDO), land to the tillers!
Their cries for justice for the massacre�s 14 victims who included two children aged 2 and 5, reached out to the heavens. From Tarlac City�s main thoroughfare marched 3,000 workers, peasants, the victims� relatives and members of militant organizations as well as the Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and Gabriela party-list groups. They marched towards the gates of the Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) in Barangay San Vicente before proceeding to the CAT sugar central gate to reclaim their picket line. Strike at CAT The Hacienda Luisita massacre was a desperate attempt to break the workers� strike led by the CAT Labor Union (CATLU) and the United Luisita Workers� Union (ULWU) that began on November 6. The CAT workers had just demands�a wage hike for mill and farm workers, the reinstatement of ULWU�s 327 members and officials illegally terminated this November, the junking of the deceptive stock distribution option scheme and the implementation of genuine land reform. CAT workers receive rates that are even lower than the minimum wage. Negotiations collapsed between the workers and management because the Cojuangcos refused to heed the workers� demands. Thus the workers� solid determination to go on with their strike. The Cojuangcos were desperate to break up the strike in the face of the P5 million daily loss of revenue resulting from the stoppage or slowdown of operations. Policemen, soldiers and the Cojuangcos� paid goons attacked the workers� picket line four times since the strike began. On November 10, at the Cojuangcos� request, the Arroyo regime through the Department of Labor and Employment issued an order to stop the strike. Massacre in Hacienda Luisita By November 16, up to 1,000 armed policemen and soldiers, two armored personnel carriers (APC) and several fire trucks assaulted the barricade set up by 6,000 workers, farm workers and their supporters in the Central Azucarera de Tarlac compound at around 3:30 p.m. The two APCs were used to destroy Gate 1 of the CAT sugar central. However, the strikers and the demonstrators were able to stand their ground. Through their cries and by marching with their arms linked, they drove back the attackers. The fascist police and soldiers lobbed teargas grenades and bombarded the workers with water cannons and were able to seize control of the gates. To gain back control of the picket line, the workers reorganized and marched anew. The soldiers and policemen then mercilessly fired upon the unarmed workers to break not only the strike but the workers� will to stand their ground. The workers reported the presence of snipers positioned atop the roof of the factory and along the sugarcane fields. Seven strikers and demonstrators were immediately felled. A day after, the number of dead totaled 14, and may rise in the coming days due to the huge number of strikers who were seriously wounded. The policemen and soldiers pursued the protesters all the way to the farm workers� shacks inside the plantation. Up to 200 people are currently being treated in various hospitals around the city. Some strikers have also been reported missing. Up to 111 strikers and their supporters, including two minors were arrested and detained at Camp Macabulos, San Vicente, Tarlac. Authorities had the audacity to charge them with assault, illegal assembly, sedition and public disturbance. The number of detainees is likely to increase since military operations have not yet ended, according to Bayan Muna-Tarlac. The military�s saturation drives continue in the barangays of Mortico and La Paz where men are being dragged out of their houses and lined up to be arrested. Arroyo regime feigns innocence in face of people's condemnation The Filipino people strongly condemn the Hacienda Luisita Massacre. Various sectors have expressed their overwhelming anger against the Cojuangco-Arroyo collusion. Even as they grieved, thousands of people marched in Tarlac. Successive demonstrations have also taken place in front of the Cojuangcos� offices in Makati and hacienda co-owner and former Philippine president Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino�s house. In an attempt to wash their bloodied hands and diminish their responsibility for the Hacienda Luisita Massacre, the Cojuangco family, Malaca�ang, the Department of Labor, the PNP and the AFP are all weaving lies to make it appear that the demonstrators were armed and were intent at starting trouble. They are maliciously spreading the lie that fighters of the New People�s Army (NPA) joined the demonstration to incite the workers. They want to make it appear that the thousands of demonstrators from various provinces who went to Tarlac to lend their support for the CAT workers� strike had sinister motives. However, all their schemes to deny responsibility for the massacre will be for nought. It is as clear as day who snuffed the lives of the workers and who ordered them to do so. The Filipino people will hold them accountable and make them pay dearly. 
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These were the cries of the workers, peasants and farm workers of Central Azucarera de Tarlac (CAT) on November 18 as they bore the coffins of the Hacienda Luisita massacre victims in a funeral procession.
