BY PALACE / MILITARY PRESENCE IN LUISITA
[PHOTO - House
Deputy Minority Leader Ma. Milagros Magsaysay says: pork funds can go directly
to my constituents, not even pass thru me PHOTO BY RENE DILAN]
MANILA,
MARCH 11, 2012 (MANILA TIMES)
Written by : RUBEN D. MANAHAN 4TH REPORTER - AFTER her "pork barrel" funds were
withheld because of her criticism of the Aquino administration, House Deputy
Minority Leader Ma. Milagros Magsaysay of Zambales said she would not mind if
the priority development assistance fund (PDAF) go directly to her constituents
and not even pass through her.
Anyway, the primary task of senators and congressmen is to legislate, not to
fund projects in their congressional districts, Magsaysay said during a
roundtable at The Manila Times office in Intramuros, Manila.
"It's fine with me if senators and congressmen do not receive their share of
pork barrel so that money would not be a factor," she added. "They could focus
on being legislators rather than being mini-executives."
Magsaysay said that some members of Congress are more concerned with heeding
the "wants of the administration" so that they would be rewarded with funds for
their projects.
"Some (congressmen) go for projects, when our main assignment is to come up
with good pieces of legislation. [But what] they are doing us not based on what
is right but on what is right for the administration," she added.
Last month, Magsaysay expressed willingness to have the pork barrel funds for
her district released directly to local officials, including Gov. Hermogenes
Ebdane Jr.
She said she had already accumulated debts totaling at least P7.8 million
last year because the Department of Budget and Management continues to withhold
the release of the PDAF for her district.
House Minority Leader Danilo Suarez of Quezon said that the practice of
withholding the release of the pork barrel funds of the opposition was
"unethical."
"It may not be illegal since the authority of releasing funds is under the
President. But, the right of the congressman to assist their constituents should
be respected. It may be unethical to interfere on how a lawmaker disburses the
fund. You're violating their right," Suarez said.
The pork barrel of most lawmakers allied with former President Gloria Arroyo
were delayed until December last year when the DBM released the PDAF allotments
for Suarez, Davao del Sur Rep. Marc Douglas Cagas 4th, Leyte Rep. Ferdinand
Martin Romualdez. Mindoro Occidental Rep. Maria Amelita Villarosa, Bohol Rep.
Arthur Yap and Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, the former minority leader.
Aside from Mrs. Arroyo, the congressmen who have not received their PDAF are
her sons, Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo and Camarines Sur Rep. Diosdado Arroyo, Iloilo
Rep. Augusto Syjuco and Magsaysay.
from the tribune
Groups investigate militarization reports at Hacienda
Luisita 03/11/2012
Possible military abuse had reared its ugly head anew at Hacienda
Luisita, which is owned by President Aquino's relatives and subject of a Supreme
Court order for land distribution, as representatives of cause-oriented groups
went to the vast Cojuangco-Aquino estate to conduct a fact-finding mission on
the situation of its farm workers amid reports of militarization and harassment
by military and private security groups.
The Alyansa ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (Ambala) said in a
statement that the Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon, Karapatan, Unyon
ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura, Luisita Peasants' and Peoples' Alliance, and
other organizations will join the fact-finding mission that covers the barangays
(villages) of Balete, Mapalacsiao, Lourdes, Cutcut and Asturias in Tarlac City;
Motrico and Bantog in La Paz; and Mabilog, Pando, and Parang all in Concepcion.
Ambala chairman Felix Nacpil Jr. urged the Armed Forces of the Philippines,
the Philippine National Police and other paramilitary groups to withdraw their
forces from the hacienda and stop harassing farm workers who are now considered
the legitimate owners of the land based on the SC decision issued last November.
Ambala and other farmers' organizations had filed a petition before the
Supreme Court to finally resolve the issues in the Hacienda to start the land
distribution process.
However, the Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) management had sought a
reconsideration and at the same time is asking for a steep price as government
payment for land appropriation.
HLI, in a petition, said while it would respect whatever is the SC decision
on the earlier ruling of the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council, it will seek
P10 billion in government compensation for the 6,000-hectare sugar estate.
CBCP-NASSA (Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines-National
Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace) chief and
Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo earlier had issued a statement,
saying that the P10 billion compensation the Cojuangcos are asking for the
hacienda was "totally unfair."
The struggle of the farmworkers in the Cojuangco-controlled hacienda has been
bloody, ever since.
In November 16, 2004, at least 14 farmworkers were killed and several others
were wounded when the State forces allegedly fired against the rallying workers.
During the height of the anti-insurgency campaign by the former Arroyo
government, several farmworker-leaders from the hacienda had been slain
allegedly due to their fight for the ownership of the lands of the disputed
hacienda.
Marcelino Beltran, chairperson of Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Tarlak (AMT)
and vice-chairperson of AMGL, Tarlac City councilor Abel Ladera; Philippine
Independent Church Bishop Alberto Ramento and priest William Tadeña; ULWU leader
Tirso Cruz, Bayan Muna leader Victor Concepcion, were killed by alleged military
and paramilitary forces.
In the report of United Nations' special rapporteur on extrajudicial
killings, Philip Alston had positively identified the military as the "brain"
behind the killings of activists, actively criticizing the socioeconomic and
sociopolitical policies of the former administration.
"There are overwhelming reasons why the military should be pulled out of
Hacienda Luisita, farmworkers who are legitimately and morally upholding their
rights to land are usual targets of rights abuses and it would continue unless
they are out of the hacienda," the Ambala leader said.
Last February 20, militant website Bulatlat.com reported that 100 security
guards, ten elements of the Tarlac provincial police and 15 members of the
Philippine Army escorted the fencing of agricultural lands at Balete village at
Hacienda Luisita.
More than 300 members of Ambala blocked the putting up of fences that
resulted in the security guards, police and military firing shots eight times.
"They thought we would be cowed by the gunfire. We had it when we were
massacred on November 16, 2004. But we stayed put and continued to block the
fencing. It is a triumphant defense of our rights to the land," Nacpil said.
Farm workers started cultivating the land after the Supreme Court issued a
decision in July 2011, stating, among others, that the farm workers must be
given the option to choose between owning land or stocks.
In a decision in November 2011, the high court unanimously ordered the
distribution of more than 4,000 hectares of land to farm worker beneficiaries
but also upheld that a local bank, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) of the
Yuchengco group, was a "buyer in good faith."
According to Jobert Pahilga, lawyer of the Ambala and executive director of
the Sentro para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo (Sentra), the RCBC acquired the
500-hectare land on November 24, 2004 as payment for the loan of Luisita
Industrial Park Corporation (Lipco). The transfer was made eight days after the
massacre.
"How could it be that the whole world, except the RCBC, knows that the land
is under dispute?" Pahilga said in a forum last January.
"We are the legitimate owners of the 4,915 hectares of land and the
Cojuangco-Aquinos must recognize that it is legally and morally ours. The
decades-long oppression and deception by the Cojuangco should finally end so
that we could peacefully cultivate Hacienda Luisita as our source of food and
livelihood," Nacpil said.
The Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luson (AMGL) condemned the use of
government forces, under the command of President Aquino, in attacking the farm
workers.
"It is a testament to how the President's family mobilizes state security
forces to suppress the just and legitimate assertion of the farm workers over
the lands. The Aquino government now replicates the state repression by the
previous Arroyo government," Randall Echanis, deputy secretary general of the
Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said in a separate statement.
Echanis called on the Supreme Court to "immediately decide with finality on
the distribution of Hacienda Luisita, including the more than 500-hectares
illegally sold by the Cojuangcos to RCBC."
"In light of the renewed attacks against the farm workers, the high court
should now break the Cojuangco-Aquinos monopoly and control over the lands and
put an end to the continuing feudal exploitation and oppression suffered by the
farm workers from the hands of the President's family," Echanis said.
In the same vein, Anakpawis Rep. Rafael V. Mariano said, "While farmers are
demanding for land and justice, the Cojuangco-Aquinos continue with their legacy
of landlordism and violence against farmers."
"Luisita farmers-beneficiaries are demanding for the immediate distribution
of some 4,915-hectare agricultural lands in Luisita. Instead, the President's
family unleashed a series of attacks against farmers and farm workers fighting
for their right to the lands."
Chief News Editor: Sol
Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE
NEWS ONLINE
All rights reserved
PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS
ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
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