TAN, JAMAICA M. OCTOBER 01, 2017
1CA1
REFLECTION PAPER
The Hacienda Luisita is a 6,453-hectare sugarcane plantation owned by the Cojuangco family, to which both – the former presidents belong. Though the plantation was supposed to be distributed to 6,296 landless farmers under the national agrarian reform program known as the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) in 1988, a stock distribution option (SDO) was implemented in 1989, giving the farm workers corporate stocks as an alternative to land distribution. In December 2005, the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) issued a resolution which revoked the SDO and directed the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to redistribute the land under the CARP. Nevertheless, the land redistribution process was stalled by the Temporary Restraining Order issued by the Supreme Court in August 2006 and the land has still not been distributed.
After I had watched the documentary “Sa Ngalan ng Tubo”. I shed some tears because the Hacienda Luisita issue has already been running for a couple of years now, it’s been a never-ending struggle and a heart-touching story. The documentary gave little information about the land but instead it highlighted the lives of the farmers who were working there and how they are fighting for their lands and rights. I always knew about the issue regarding Hacienda Luisita, but back then I never really cared about it maybe because I’m still young and don’t know what’s happening in the world so I just brush it off. Through watching this documentary, I realized that the greatest burden of both parties was each side’s definition of JUSTICE. Justice is something that should be given to these people.
The impact of this issue definitely affects the lives of the succeeding generations. In the past two decades, they have grown up with the noise shouting for justice while their parents in graveyard, will not be appeased to rest. And these children, who supposedly playing at their yards will be the heirs of this hostility, therefore, risking their future to a violent condition. And what shall we do to avoid it? Let us support and empathize to what they are yearning for, now. By means of pressuring the government, I know that in simple act of everyone; altogether, can make a big impact to the country.
