HACIENDA LUISITA — Protesting laborers and farm workers here, joined by their respective families and reinforced by militant activists, have practically taken control over nearly all movements in this sprawling sugar estate owned by the family of former President Corazon Aquino.
Full story...
Luisita resumes milling operations as tension eases
HACIENDA LUISITA — Tension has somewhat eased in this 6,000-hectare sugar plantation, as the ranks of the protesters who locked up the refinery during the weekend have thinned out, allowing the Central Azucarera de Tarlac (CAT) to resume its milling operations noontime Monday.
Full story...
Truck attacks force Luisita mill closure anew
HACIENDA LUISITA — The “violent and destructive” actions being carried out by alleged “troublemakers” among the ranks of protesters here has forced Luzon’s biggest sugar mill to shutdown anew its operations Tuesday morning, after these were briefly resumed around noontime last Monday.
Full story...
7-month long Rabbit strike ends
TARLAC CITY — The almost seven-month long strike in one of the country’s oldest transport company finally came to an end, as the Philippine Rabbit Bus Lines (PRBL) commenced plying major routes from Metro Manila to Central and Northern Luzon again.
TARLAC CITY — The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) has recently decided to extend the lease contract of air courier giant, the Federal Express (FedEx), up to August 2010.
Int’l media watchdog: RP hostile for journalists
TARLAC CITY — Although the country has a “free and lively press,” the Philippines has been counted by the Paris-based international media watchdog as one of the places most hostile to journalists.
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Nov. 1 - 21, 2004
Protesters take control of Hacienda Luisita
HACIENDA LUISITA — Protesting laborers and farmworkers here, joined by their respective families and reinforced by militant activists, have practically taken control over nearly all movements in this sprawling sugar estate owned by the family of former President Corazon Aquino.
This, as the regional office for Central Luzon of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) yielded to demands by local officials in the province and Tarlac City not order the police anti-riot contingent to have the protesters dispersed in the course of implementing Labor Sec. Patricia Sto. Tomas’ return-to-work order.
It was late last Thursday when the number of rallyists here surged, the bulk of which is at the main gate of the Central Azucarera de Tarlac (CAT)’s sugar refinery.
Road blocks were also set up by the protesters along nearly all thoroughfares here, including the one leading to the Alto compound where Mrs. Aquino and other members of the Cojuangco family live, as well as the one going to the Luisita Golf Course and the posh Las Haciendas Luisita subdivision.
In a statement by the corporate affairs office of the Hacienda Luisita, Inc. (HLI), it claimed that the combined mass actions being staged by the CAT Labor Union (CATLU) and the United Luisita Workers’ Union (ULWU) created a “reign of terror.”
The CATLU represents the more than 750 factory workers at the sugar mill here, while the ULWU is the recognized labor group of this estate’s more than 5,000 farmworkers regarded as “co-owners” by Mrs. Aquino’s family in the HLI, the corporate farming firm established in the late 1980s under the stock distribution scheme of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
But CATLU president, Ric Ramos, said that the actions taken by the protesters were their “legitimate reaction” to the purported continued refusal by the management to resume their stalled collective bargaining agreement (CBA) talks, and to threats of violent dispersal following Sto. Tomas’ order, as well as her order of “assumption of jurisdiction” over the labor dispute by the DOLE.
In several instances, HLI’s private security force and policemen deployed to this estate even had to ask permission from protesters manning what the rallyists have described as “people’s blockades” in order for them to pass through.
It was at exactly 5:30 p.m. last Thursday when the deadline for the return-to-work order expired, with anti-riot policemen dispatched by no other than Chief Supt. Quirino dela Torre, regional police director for Central Luzon, then prepared to disperse rallyists who have blocked the main entrance and exit points to the refinery.
But Sto. Tomas’ order was met with vehement defiance, as police estimated that more than 6,000 villagers from the 10 barangays in Tarlac City and the towns of Concepcion and La Paz covered by this vast estate have suddenly massed up at the mill’s Gate 1.
This, even as the Armed Forces’ Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom), whose headquarters is located adjacent to this plantation in Barangay San Miguel, Tarlac City, also deployed soldiers from the Army’s 69th Infantry Battalion to reinforce anti-riot policemen.
Nolcom spokesman, Lt. Col. Preme Monta, however declined to disclose how many soldiers were actually dispatched here.
[back]
Luisita strikers to
Cory family: Ditch ‘bogus’ union leaders[Full story...]The Hacienda Luisita
Tragedy[Full story...]Hacienda Luisita: A
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‘military contacts’ say Luisita massacre was premeditated[Full story...]The village that OFW
remittances built[Full story...]Luisita resumes milling operations as tension eases[Full story...]Truck attacks force Luisita mill closure anew[Full story...]Reds, Church group back Luisita protests[Full story...]Tarlac dads help in averting violence at Luisita[Full story...]Sugarcane trucks attacked as Luisita resumes milling operations[Full story...]7-month long Rabbit strike ends7-month long Rabbit strike ends[Full story...]
Int’l media watchdog: RP hostile for journalists[Full story...]
Reds: ‘GMA is ripe for ousting’[Full story...]
General Yano outlines new CRSAFP thrust[Full story...]
