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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Subic allows FedEx to operate ecozone hub until 2013
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 - 31, 2004
Ka Roger claims NPA ‘military contacts’ say Luisita massacre was premeditated
TARLAC CITY — The senior spokesman of the Maoist underground claimed on Sunday that their “sources within the military” told guerillas investigating the Nov. 16 violence in Hacienda Luisita that the incident was “premeditated” by some ranking Armed Forces officials.
According to the Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal, high-profile spokesman of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), rebel “military contacts” told them that one of the “evidence” that they now have against the AFP was the V-150 armored personnel carrier (APC) that was used to ram on Gate 1 of the Central Azucarera de Tarlac (CAT), which was the main picketline of the striking members of the CAT Labor Union (CATLU) and the United Luisita Workers’ Union (ULWU).
At least two APCs were then dispatched from Camp Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo in Quezon City by the AFP for the police-led dispersal operation, which was ordered by Labor Sec. Patricia Sto. Tomas after issuing a directive for her department to assume jurisdiction over the labor dispute in the sprawling estate owned by the family of former President Corazon Aquino.
Rosal noted that video footages by news crews played on national television showed that the said APC that was used to bring down the CAT’s Gate 1 had the marking “4035.”
He claimed that a day before the bloody dispersal, the same APC, whose body number was A120 4035, was brought to the Army’s 80th Infantry Battalion camp in Barangay San Isidro in Rodriguez, Rizal.
“There, a couple of soldiers were ordered to fire several rounds at the APC, ostensibly to prove that the vehicle’s body armor could provide protective cover to its passengers,” Rosal further claimed, citing the CPP-NPA’s purported “military contacts.”
He added that villagers living adjacent to the military camp even witnessed this.
When some of the soldiers in the 80th IB’s camp saw the same APC on national television, Rosal said, “Nakonsensiya ang iba sa kanila (Some of them were struck by their conscience.).”
“That is why they sought our help,” added the rebel spokesman, even as he said that the 80th IB has already been listed by the New People’s Army (NPA), the CPP’s armed wing, for having gained “notoriety” for shooting at four girls aged 10 to 14 in April last year at a military checkpoint in Rizal “on the ridiculous pretext that they were NPA guerillas.”
Shortly after the violence in Hacienda Luisita, police and military officials noted that the said APC had at least seven holes believed to have been caused by bullets.
This, even as before investigations on the incident took their course, some ranking authorities already insinuated that the ranks of the demonstrators were infiltrated by elements of the CPP-NPA.
“Apparently, AFP officials wanted the APC to sustain bullet marks in order to use this as supposed evidence that shots were fired from among the strikers and demonstrators in order to justify the shooting spree by soldiers and police,” Rosal said.
At least seven people have been confirmed to have been killed in the violence, with all of the victims succumbing to gunshot wounds.
But human rights activists belonging to the group, Karapatan, continue to insist that 14 people were killed in the incident, including a 10-year-old infant and a three-year-old baby who supposedly both died of asphyxiation due to tear gas poisoning.
Karapatan also said that authorities, including the Cojuangco family, have yet to account for some 39 seasonal sacadas (sugarcane cutters) from the Visayas and Mindanao working in Hacienda Luisita, who reportedly went missing after the Nov. 16 violence.
Ricardo Ramos and Rene Galang, respective presidents of the CATLU and ULWU, said that at the time of the dispersal, they and their fellow demonstrators saw snipers firing at them from a nearby sugarcane field and from the top of one of the reservoirs of the CAT mill.
They recounted that the shooting lasted for nearly 10 minutes.
If what the CPP-NPA “contacts” in the military have told the rebels is true, Rosal said, “It now appears that officials of the Arroyo government, the AFP and police had already come up with a story-line to justify their planned unprovoked shooting of strikers and demonstrators.”
“This is a classic example of wagging the dog,” added the communist spokesman.
“This explains why immediately after the massacre, Malacañang, AFP and police officials led by Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita quickly heaped blame on so-called armed infiltrators among the strikers and then came up with fantastic intelligence reports about so-called NPA plans to incite the strikers,” said Rosal.
According to him, the CPP-NPA will continue its “investigation” into the incident, even as he issued a stern warning that “those culpable will be appropriately charged at the people’s court.”
Those found guilty by the CPP’s “people’s court” are being immediately included in the rebels’ “hit list” for assassination.
Earlier, Rosal revealed that the rebel movement was already holding President Arroyo, Sto. Tomas and Mrs. Aquino’s younger brother, former Tarlac Rep. Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr., responsible for the incident.
Up to now, Hacienda Luisita’s sugar mill has remained closed, as a day after the violent dispersal there, the CATLU and ULWU were able to reclaim the picketline at the refinery’s Gate 1.
Ramos and Galang demanded that the managements of the CAT and the Hacienda Luisita, Inc. (HLI) face them in the negotiating table in order to bring the labor dispute to a peaceful end.
The HLI is the corporate farming firm established in 1988 under the stock distribution scheme of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. The more than 5,000 farmworkers belonging to the ULWU are being regarded by the Cojuangco family as their “co-shareholders” in the HLI, as the land reform beneficiaries supposedly own 33.3 percent of the firm’s stocks.
The CATLU, on the other hand, is the labor group of the more than 750 mill employees of the CAT.
The demonstrations in Hacienda Luisita came after 327 ULWU members, including Galang and nine other union officers, were laid off by the HLI last Oct. 1, while the CATLU was in a deadlock in its collective bargaining agreement (CBA) talks with the CAT.
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