Monday, January 11
Natalie Phillips, CUPE 4600:
Today we traveled nearly two hours from Manila to Tarlac. We went to visit the site of the Hacienda Luisita massacre and to meet with the people who lived through it. Our delegation has heard the story of the massacre many times over, but for those of you who are unfamiliar with this tragedy, below is contextual background information.
On November 6th, 2004, over 6000 farm workers on the hacienda (plantation) went on strike. Their union, the United Luisita Workers’ Union, demanded fair wages, guaranteed working days, geniune land reform, and respect of their basic human rights, all of which had been neglected for far too long. Their fight was against their employer, the Cojuangco family, who own 6453 hectares of agricultural land, the majority of which is devoted to lucrative sugar cane production for export. The Cojuangcos have made substantial financial gains by demoralizing their labour force, and even denying them the opportunity to feed themselves off of the land on which they work.
To bring readers up to speed I’ll go even further back to 1987. At this time, the farming community of Hacienda Luisita witnessed the introduction of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law. The law included provisions that allowed land owners to form a corporation and redistribute shares to the farmers who worked the land (known as the “Stock Distribution Option”). The Cojuangco family exploited this law by giving out stock certificates to farmers.They evenly divided 33% of the land amongst 6000 farmers and kept the remaining 66%; of course, this meant that the farmers’ stocks were meaningless.
On November 10th, 2004, four days into the workers strike, an Assumption of Jurisdiction Order was issued by the Secretary of Labour. This is akin to a back-to-work order in Canada. The strikers were told they had five days to return to work or the military would disperse their picket line with force. True to their word, police and military arrived at the gates of the sugar central where the picket line was formed and attacked the peaceful crowd with tear gas and water cannons. The strikers retaliated by hurling small objects back at the military forces using sling shots. They were determined to stand their ground, and they were determined to have their demands heard. As the afternoon progressed, and supplies of tear gas dwindled, the military resorted to more drastic measures; armed with M-16 rifles, they opened fire on the assembly of farmers. Panic tore through the crowd as quickly as the bullets, and when the shots stopped, seven men lay fatally wounded.
To this day, these farmers are fighting to revoke the Stock Distribution Option.
Mr. Laza's son was shot and killed by the army during the Hacienda Luisita strike in 2004. He continues to seek justice for his son and all farmers, and vows to continue struggling until genuine land reform is realized.
