Photo from GMA news (ctto) |
Manila, Philippines - President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday that violent incidents at Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac could have been prevented if only former President Corazon Aquino included the sugar plantation owned by her family in the land reform program.
“How many
killings took place there? Marami ang namatay dun. Sana sinali niya ang
[Hacienda] Luisita,” said Duterte in his speech during the
oath-taking of the newly elected officers of the League of Provinces of the
Philippines in Malacanang.
The President was referring to the November 2004 violent incident
that killed 14 plantation workers of the Cojuangco-owned Hacienda Luisita.
In that incident, 14 farm workers were killed and hundreds of others were
injured when government forces opened fire on them in front of the gates of the
Central Azucarera de Tarlac.
“More than 100
persons died there along the way in the implementation of the land reform. It could
have been avoided kung pati yung [Hacienda] Luisita sinali niya na noon. She
was the President. She was in control of everything,” the President
said.
Hacienda
Luisita used to occupy 6,435 hectares but over the years, portions of land have
been sold to industrial companies.
Former President Aquino
made land reform the highlight of her administration’s social legislative
agenda. However, her family background and social class as a privileged
daughter of a wealthy clan became a source of criticisms against her land
reform program.
In a previous report last Friday, the chief
executive also criticized Aquino’s agrarian reform legacy, saying that she
exempted her family’s sugar property from the land distribution program.
The President also claimed that she became popular
only because her former Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., was killed “in the
hands” of then-President Ferdinand Marcos.
Ninoy Aquino's death sparked protests and send
Corazon Aquino to the presidency in February 1986 following the ouster of
President Ferdinand Marcos in the bloodless People Power Revolution that marked in history not just in our country but worldwide as well.
Aquino’s youngest child, actress Kris Aquino, on
Saturday thanked Duterte for "acknowledging" the fact that her father
died in the hands of the Marcoses.
Source: Politiko
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