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                                                                                        Pope Benedict

News and Press Releases

  1. Bullet  A time of Pain, a time of Grace - CBCP Pastoral Statement - July 2011


  1. Bullet  Church people and workers to hold National Conference to Advance Labor Rights

  1. Bullet  Catholic Youth crusades against RH Bill


  1. Bullet  CWS joins Assembly for Luisita Farmer’s, Support Farmer’s call for Land Distribution in Hacienda Luisita


CWS JOINS ASSEMBLY FOR LUISITA FARMER’S, SUPPORT A FARMER’S CALL FOR LAND DISTRIBUTION IN HACIENDA LUISITA Church people-Worker’s Solidarity joined the interfaith assembly for Luisita farmers yesterday at the Liwasang Bonifacio as an expression on its support for the farmers’ call to distribute the lands of the Cojuangco’s Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI). CWS, a group convened by church leaders, workers and labor advocates, also expressed its dismay over the Supreme Court’s decision to hold another referendum, instead of totally nullifying the stock distribution option (SDO). Early this month, the SC rules 6-4 favor of holding another referendum to settle the issue of land ownership - whether through land distribution or stock distribution - in Hacienda Luisita. CWS Convenor Jaro Auxiliary Bishop Gerardo Alminaza said, “Holding a referendum in Hacienda Luisita will not settle the dispute over the land. Instead, it will only prolong the misery of our brothers and sisters who should have benefited the most from the land they tilled for decades.” Alminaza also urged the President to make a stand on this issue and make it known in his State of the Nation Address today. “President Aquino should make a clear stand on the issue. This is a matter that goes beyond Hacienda Luisita and the Cojuangco family. It is ultimately a question of the agrarian reform policy under his presidency,” bishop alminaza added. Bishop Aminaza further reminded the President, that the journey towards genuine development of the Philippine society, is a journey “to truth, justice, love and peace.” For the country to achieve social transformation, Bishop Alminaza said, “We must denounce inequality as a moral evil. The Second Plenary Council of the Philippines (PCPII) of 1991, declared that one of the greatest injustice is the fact there is poor distribution of the goods and services originally intended for all (PCP II, 268).” CWS believes that another referendum on the SDO will deny the farmers of their right to own the land that they till. Bishop Alminaza is also concerned of the reports that in 2010, weeks before the referendum and signing of the controversial “compromise agreement” with farm workers, the villages in Hacienda Luisita were subjected to militarization. Hacienda Luisita residents reported that those opposed to the stock distribution option (SDO) became targets of “coercion,harassment and intimidation for farm workers t0 favor SDO over land distribution.” On june 31, 2010, the military reportedly burned the house of an Ambala (Alliance of Hacienda Luisita Farm Workers) leader. Also in 2010, Federico Laza, an Ambala leader, said that peasant leaders were openly followed everywhere in the Hacienda by at least four military men armed with high-powered rifles, Laza further said that soldiers threatened them to discontinue their struggle for land, else, “something will happen”. CWS Convenor Garry Martinez, for his part, said, “The SDO has been used by the Cojuangco clan to decieve the farmers and maintain its hold on the HLI land when it should have been distributed to the farmers a long time ago. After six years of the SDO, the farmers at HLI are still poor and landless.” Martinez added, “Its only just that the land be given to tillers. This is in accordance to the principle of genuine agrarian reform, as well as in the provisions of the 1987 Constitution.”