At the Congressional hearing in aid of legislation on the massacre in Hacienda Luisita, the militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) put the blame squarely on the masterminds of the massacre and that is the Cojuangco family and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself. 

According to Carl Anthony Ala, public information officer of KMP, “the farm-workers and workers under the real ULWU and CATLU respectively have tried to talk with the Cojuangcos even before the strike started. But the landlord family is hell bent on imposing its will upon the strikers and it even went as far as retrenching the union officials of ULWU, and replacing them with their underlings. These are the yellow unionists the management wants to talk to because they would do anything that the Cojuangcos say,”

“Another point is that Margarita “Ting-ting” Cojuangco, wife of Jose “Peping” Cojuangco, owners of the hacienda is also the undersecretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government for Special Concerns, this agency directly supervises the PNP, as the results of the dispersal would attest, they were in the framework of shooting the strikers if they would not abandon the picket line. This has long been what the Cojuangcos always wanted that the strikers abandon their picket line without getting any of their demands,” added Ala.

“As for Pres. Macapagal-Arroyo’s hand in the fiasco, when lawyers of the unions as well as the DOLE Region 3 director, appealed to her on November 13 at lunch in Clark Airbase, that the Assumption of Jurisdiction (AJ) be lifted, all she said that it is under DOLE Sec. Patricia Sto. Tomas’ purview and that there is nothing she can do, but in reality she indeed can do something by intervening for the workers and farm workers and even call for the AJ’s deferment or junking. The AJ is even questionable because the hacienda is not a vital industry, nor does the strike threaten national security,” expounded Ala.

“The president as well as the Cojuangcos; were really itching to do away with the strike even if it means that it would cost the lives of the farm-workers. If this is the type of president we have then we are really in for a lot of trouble,” ended Ala. # # #
 

KMP - 25 November 2004