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
Hacienda Luisita: A tragedy on Ninoy’s 72nd birthday
HACIENDA LUISITA — Two mysteries now highlight the 72nd birth anniversary of contemporary martyr-hero, former Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. in this sprawling estate owned by the family of his widow, former President Corazon Aquino.
That of Ninoy’s, of course, are who ordered his assassination, and who really killed him: Was it alleged communist hitman Rolando Galman, or the 15 imprisoned soldiers of the defunct Aviation Security Command (Avsecom)?
And like in the case of the fallen nemesis of the late dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, now also begging for answers are questions as to who ordered the shooting of demonstrating sugar mill workers and farmworkers here last Nov. 16, and who were those who fired the shots.
Ninoy was felled on August 21, 1983 by an assassin’s bullets at the tarmac of the erstwhile Manila International Airport, which was later renamed in his honor, after a brief exile in the US.
He was at the time a towering figure in the anti-dictatorship movement, convicted by a military tribunal for being an alleged communist insurgent leader. He was the epitome of the nation’s struggle for freedom and democracy, what with his courageous declaration, which sort of having had become his death wish: “The Filipino is worth dying for.”
As for the demonstrators here who have locked up Luzon’s biggest sugar mill since Nov. 6, although their leaders mouth what many regard as obsolete slogans of the combined Marxist, Leninist and Maoist doctrines, they seem to now reflect the centuries-old struggles against feudal bondage.
The life of Ninoy was closely interrelated with the mill workers and farmworkers here. He was instrumental in the acquisition of this sprawling state by his wife’s family from its original Spanish owners in 1958.
Ninoy became this plantation’s first administrator, and in several instances, he was suspected of having harbored here guerillas of the defunct Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan (HMB) of the old Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP), among them former rebel commander Bernabe “Ka Dante” Buscayno.
Buscayno would later become the commander-in-chief of the New People’s Army (NPA), armed wing of the Maoist-oriented Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), whose leaders, specifically Jose Ma. Sison, broke away from the PKP-HMB.
It was here in Tarlac where Sison and Buscayno put up the CPP-NPA, and Marcos then suspected that Ninoy, along with some of the strongman’s other political opponents, had a hand in it.
When Ninoy was killed, villagers here mourned with the Aquinos and the Cojuangcos, and actively participated in demonstrations that culminated in the Edsa-1 uprising of February 1986.
Even during the Edsa-2 revolt against the administration of jailed former President Joseph Estrada, where Mrs. Aquino’s younger brother, former Tarlac Rep. Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr., played a significant role in galvanizing an alliance of Right, Middle and Left forces, hundreds of villagers here took to the streets.
Mrs. Aquino’s only son, Tarlac second district Rep. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, also considers villages here that are under the political jurisdiction of Tarlac City (which is under his congressional district) as his bailiwick.
But all of these have been overshadowed by that tragic Nov. 16 incident, when guns were fired on striking factory workers and farmworkers while an anti-riot force of more than a thousand policemen and soldiers were dispersing the picketline at the Gate 1 of the Central Azucarera de Tarlac (CAT) here.
Seven strikers died from the gunshots. They are now called “The Martyrs of Hacienda Luisita.”
More than a hundred others were brought to nearby hospitals in Tarlac City, mostly due to gunshot wounds. Exactly 111 others were rounded up by the police, and now face criminal charges.
Like in the killing of Ninoy, nobody can substantiate each and every allegation on who fired at the strikers.
Authorities claimed it could have had been communist guerillas who allegedly infiltrated the ranks of the demonstrators. But this was vehemently denied by the CPP-NPA.
Ricardo Ramos and Rene Galang, respective presidents of the CAT Labor Union (CATLU) and the United Luisita Workers’ Union (ULWU), said there were snipers at the time of the shooting: some were positioned at the CAT compound’s reservoir, and there were also those firing from a nearby open field where about three trucks loaded with newly-cut sugarcane were parked.
Human rights advocates claimed that the snipers could have had been government elements.
The standoff between the striking unions and the Cojuangco family has remained until Ninoy’s birthday on Saturday. Mrs. Aquino has offered her prayers of peace in this plantation, but this was flatly rejected by protest leaders, saying that they demand justice instead.
Nonetheless, yellow ribbons, which symbolized the mourning of Ninoy’s death and the anti-dictatorship struggle, were tied on old acacia and narra trees here.
In deference to the fallen hero, protest leaders here abandoned an earlier plan for the strikers to also tie black ribbons beside the yellow ones.
But at the Gate 1 of the sugar mill here, where the strikers were able to reclaim the picketline that was the battleground of the Nov. 16 incident, a large black streamer is prominently waving beside red flags. “Katarungan para sa mga biktima ng Hacienda Luisita masaker (Justice to the victims of the Hacienda Luisita massacre),” were the words painted on it in red.
[back]
Luisita strikers to Cory family: Ditch ‘bogus’ union leaders[Full story...]The Hacienda Luisita Tragedy[Full story...]Ka Roger claims NPA ‘military contacts’ say Luisita massacre was premeditated[Full story...]The village that OFW remittances built[Full story...]Protesters take control of Hacienda Luisita[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...]Subic allows FedEx to operate ecozone hub until 2013[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...]
