http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/20100121hed3.html
Hacienda Luista Inc. (HLI) has sunk deeper in trouble after members of a House panel yesterday discovered that the corporation owned by the family of Liberal Party standard bearer Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino committed another grave violation of the Mining Act when it used a dummy for its quarrying agreement with Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX) project Japanese contractor Hazama.
At the resumption of hearing on the controversial road project, officials of HLI and Hazama told members of the House committee on oversight that they had no idea at all who Rolando Tongco is, whose name was used for the Special Permit to Extract or quarry, which was granted by the Tarlac provincial government.
Upon questioning by Cavite Rep. Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla, HLI lawyer Tony Ligon and Hazama representative, Yoichi Inoue, admitted they had entered into a quarrying agreement allowing Hazama to extract aggregatees from the vast sugarland for use as filling materials for SCTEX. Both, however, denied knowing Tongco. Based on a memorandum of agreement (MoA) between HLI and Hazama that Remulla presented to the committee, HLI granted permission to Hazama to extract 50,000 cubic meters of aggregates from the Hacienda premises in exchange for an 11-meter wide by 2.2 kilometer long private road.
The MoA also states that HLI would be responsible for all necessary permits from pertinent government agencies.
A Special Permit to Extract was granted to Tongco in behalf of HLI for a period of three months from Feb. 13 to May 12, 2006 by Tarlac Gov. Jose Yap.
Upon further questioning by Remulla, Inoue admitted they started quarrying inside Luisita as early as November 2005, some three months before the permit was granted, a clear admission they had engaged in illegal quarrying with the consent of HLI.
When asked if HLI paid the government royalty fees from the quarrying, Ligon answered in the negative, saying it was the responsibility of the local government to go after them.
“We have no record that we paid for any royalty,” Ligon told the Panel.
Based on the MoA, HLI was to guarantee that Hazama would be exempt from any royalty.
Panel chairman, Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez, also inquired whether the Luisita farm workers were informed of the quarrying agreement between HLI and Hazama and whether they were properly compensated to which a representative of the farm workers answered they were not.
Under the Stock Distribution Option (SDO) agreement between HLI and the farm workers, the latter are entitled to 33 percent of all income from the sugar land.
Remulla scored Aquino for having failed to act on the violations committed by HLI despite owning a substantial amount of share in the Cojuangco-Aquino controlled corporation.
“Clearly, there are some violations of the law here,” Remulla told reporters in an interview after the hearing. “Although a direct beneficiary, Senator Aquino failed to act and control his family.”
Meanwhile, militant peasant groups dared presidential candidates for the May 10 elections except Aquino, to make known their recommendations in solving the Hacienda Luisita issue.
Arriving in Metro Manila for the 8th day of Pambansang Lakbayan ng Anakpawis Para sa Lupa at Katarungan (National Journey of Toiling Masses for Land and Justice), organizers of the 10-day long march posed the question: ‘How do you solve a problem like Hacienda Luisita?’ to the presidential candidates.
Lakbayan organizers Danilo Ramos, secretary general of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and party list group Anakpawis secretary general Cherry Clemente in a joint statement asked the presidential candidates to declare their position on Hacienda Luisita.
“Senator Aquino believes Hacienda Luisita is God’s gift to Cojuangco-Aquino clan, and therefore only God can take it back from them. So it is useless to ask this moral, legal and political question to him. It is obvious, Noynoy and the patriarchs and matriarchs of Cojuangco landed clan will not give up their immoral and unlawful claim on Luisita,” the Lakbayan leaders said in a joint statement.
KMP’s Ramos said the problems in Hacienda Luisita will not find a long lasting and just settlement under a Noynoy Aquino presidency, asserting that the 6,453-hectare sugar estate is the bread and butter and the source of economic and political power of the Cojuangco-Aquino for a near century.
“So the 64-dollar question remains -- how these presidentiables except Noynoy will solve a problem like Hacienda Luisita?”
KMP said Hacienda Luisita is only one of the more than 200 cases being handled by the group’s para-legal committee, adding that agrarian cases in different regions and provinces will also be carried by Lakbayan for concrete action and resolution including but not limited to cases of landgrabbing in Southern Tagalog orchestrated by landlord and developers identified with Ayala group of companies and the 3,100 hectare landgrabbing spree inside Fort Magsaysay Military Reservation in Laur, Nueva Ecija.
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