The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) lambasted the Hacinda Luisita management for trying to muddle the issue in the land and labor conflict in the Cojuangco estate. According to Danilo “Ka Daning” Ramos secretary general of the group, “it is the HLI management’s fault that they have incurred P64.3M losses, because if they had talked with the striking workers of the United Luisita Worker’s Union (ULWU) and the Central Azucarera de Tarlac Labor Union (CATLU) in the first place then things would not have come to this,”

“But up till now, the Cojuangcos still refuse to talk with the striking ULWU workers, which is the majority of those on strike. The Cojuangcos are trying to use divide and rule tactics on the two unions by only wanting to talk with CATLU. This would not work though, because the unity of the workers and farm workers in the hacienda are so strong that one would not negotiate if the other is not present. The Cojuangcos and Aquinos only have themselves to blame for their losses, and besides what the people in the picket line are fighting for is their very survival and not merely business loss,” added the peasant leader.

As for his part Carl Anthony Ala, pubic information officer of KMP, “the Cojuangco’s timing for issuing their report of losses is very dubious because, it is just 3 days after the murder of Marcelino “Ka Marcing” Beltran, a key witness in their orchestrated massacre, and they want to obscure the issue. This report is also a means by the Cojuangcos to draw sympathy from the public. But the people can see through their charade, they may be incurring losses but on the other hand their workers and farm workers have nothing to eat. Which is more tragic? ”

“For the longest time the Cojuangcos are evading the issue of the farm workers because what these poor people want is the right to their land which was forced and swindled from them by the Cojuangcos. A clan that is so greedy that it would rather watch its farm workers starve to death rather than incur losses,” ended Ala. # # #  
 

KMP - 12 December 2004