The Cojuangcos are killing CARPER by overpricing Hacienda Luisita

The Cojuangcos’ of Tarlac, whether they like it or not, should lead or be seen as a model of elite’s cooperation and support to the moral recovery efforts of the current government. This is because a member of their clan, no less than the country’s president, Pnoy Aquino, is leading the government’s effort for reform and against corruption. But the clan is betraying this intention of Pnoy Aquino by demonstrating elite greed unparalleled in the history of agrarian reform in the country that will most likely kill the program if the clan continues to demand for P 10 Billion compensation on Hacienda Luisita.



At P 10 Billion for less than 5,000 hectares, the average price per hectare of Hacienda Luisita will be more than Two Million Pesos per hectare. Such demand will make the Philippine agrarian reform program the most expensive in the history of agrarian reform implementation around the world. This unprecedented land price will also reinforce long-time critics of state-led agrarian reform such as the World Bank, which take the view that agrarian reform should be reviewed if not altogether stopped because its implementation is very expensive. In this regard, wittingly or unwittingly, the Cojuangcos are reinforcing the campaign to kill the current agrarian reform program.



The P 10 Billion demanded by the Cojuangcos for the payment of Hacienda Luisita represents two thirds of the budget of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Programs Extension with Reform (CARPER) for the year 2012. This is even higher than the total budget allocated by the Department of Agrarian Reform for the acquisition of more or less 300,000 hectares targeted for distribution in 2012! If this land value will prevail nationwide, the DAR will only be able to acquire less than 50,000 hectares of land in the remaining years of CARPER especially in light of the consistent underfunding of CARPER , which has averaged P 16 Billion a year from 2009 against the mandated budget of P 30 B a year under Republic Act 9700. This is surely one way of killing agrarian reform.



Instead of supporting the effort of Pnoy Aquino, the Cojuangcos are setting a very bad precedent and is taking the lead in the effort of landlords nationwide to resist agrarian reform. It is high time for Pnoy Aquino to step in and, “moderate the greed” of his relatives. He should not allow his own relatives to undermine the reform efforts he seems to be seriously pursuing. His efforts will sound hollow if the killing of agrarian reform is happening right in his own backya

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