Hacienda Luisita is a 6,453-hectare sugar plantation located in the province of Tarlac, Philippines. The hacienda spans 11 barangays in three towns of Tarlac. Most of the original farmworkers reside in 10 villages – Barangays Balete, Cutcut (or Sta. Catalina), Lourdes (formerly Texas), Mapalacsiao (formerly Luisita), Asturias, and Bantog in Tarlac City; Barangay Motrico in La Paz town; and Barangays Parang (formerly San Sebastian), Mabilog (formerly Pasajes) and Pando in Concepcion town. The original estate includes the Central Azucarera de Tarlac (CAT) sugar mill and a golf course. The eleventh village is Barangay Central in Tarlac City which houses the CAT sugar mill, the St. Martin de Porres Hospital and the Our Lady of Lourdes Church. It features Luisita Golf and Country Club, a golf course and Las Haciendas de Luisita Subdivision, a 5-interconnected luxury subdivision.
Originally owned by the Compañía General de Tabacos de Filipinas (Tabacalera), it is now owned by the family of Jose Cojuangco who acquired the hacienda in the late 1950s. The estate's incorporators, who control 70 percent of Hacienda Luisita's stock shares, are Pedro Cojuangco, Josephine C. Reyes, Teresita C. Lopa, José Cojuangco Jr., and María Paz C. Teopaco, all siblings of the late former President Corazón C. Aquino who, on the day she became President of the Philippines, bequeathed her shares to her five (5) children and the Daughters of Charity and other non-profit organizations. The remaining 30 percent of the stock shares was given to farm workers under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program's stock distribution option scheme.
History
Spanish era
Hacienda Luisita was once part of the holdings of Compañía General de Tabacos de Filipinas S.A., better known as Tabacalera. The land was owned by Spain, by virtue of the country's colonial relationship to the Philippines. The tobacco company was founded on 26 November 1881 by Antonio López y López from Comillas, Cantabria and Santiago de Cuba, and Don Guillermo Rubio born in Santander, Cantabria.
In 1780, the popularity of cigars in the Philippines prompted Spanish authorities to impose a tobacco monopoly, such that the only ones able to plant, manufacture, and sell cigars were the colonial government. Tabacalera was a private enterprise López founded with the sole intention of taking over the Philippine tobacco monopoly from the Spanish colonial government; the monopoly was abolished a year after López acquired the estate. This included the Hacienda Antonio (named after his eldest son), Hacienda San Fernando and Hacienda Isabel (named after his eldest daughter) in Cagayán and Isabela provinces, where the La Flor de Isabela cigar was cultivated. Due to the high profits of sugar and tobacco in the Philippines, López and his son, Claudio López Bru, the second to hold the title, donated some of the profits to the Jesuits to create the Pontifical University of Comillas, a university outside Madrid.
American period
During the American period, the hacienda supplied almost 20% of America's sugar from 1898 to the 1940s (from the Spanish–American War until World War II) back when the Tabacalera still owned it. Because of this, the Luisita sugar became popular locally as well. The Spanish-owned hacienda flourished mainly because of America's obsession with sugar. In the 1920s, Tabacalera then left the tobacco business to focus on the growing sugar industry to cater to U.S. demand, since this product was more profitable at the time. They invested heavily on the business by constructing a sugar refinery known as Central Azucarera de Tarlac (CAT) which used American centrifugal machinery technology in order to double the production and lessen the cost of shipping sugar to a refinery in Laguna owned by the Roxas Family.
The refinery became the largest sugar central in the Philippines thus increasing Tabacalera's profits. With a new production line, the refinery required a new system for more efficiency. Workers were laid off or forced to retire since old farm workers were not familiar with the new technology. This then resulted to continuous protests for a year. The hacienda produced 126,129 tons of sugar in 1928 as well as allegedly receiving additional tons of sugar with current prices of Php 23,450. The workers then found out that the hacienda was receiving multiple fines that were deducted from the workers' wages, which sparked outrage.
Japanese occupation of the Philippines During the Japanese period, the hacienda still continued all operations in sugar production. A Japanese policy was put in place to ensure that supplies in commodities such as rice and sugar were not interrupted and were made available to Filipinos in order to avoid insurgencies or rebellions. The continuation of the production both served the Japanese and the Spanish's interests at that time.
In 1942, Luis Taruc and 200 members formed HUKBALAHAP, a peasant based guerrilla army to fight the Japanese forces. Many of these members were farmers of Hacienda Luisita because of their discontent with Tabacalera, advocating for the distribution of land. On 25 January 1945, General Douglas Macarthur set up his headquarters at Hacienda Luisista to fight Japanese forces in the Philippines.
In 1947, a farmer's wife was reported to be raped by one of the remaining Spanish directors of the hacienda. In support of her, other wives lay themselves on the railroad tracks to stop the trains carrying sugar from being delivered. The Spanish director immediately left for Spain which pushed the Hukbalahap to execute the Spanish encargados (managers) in front of the guest house when they refused to admit to the crime.
José Cojuangco period (1957–1976)
In 1957, the owners of the Tabacalera decided to sell Hacienda Luisita as well as the sugar mill, Central Azucarera de Tarlac (CAT), because of the Hukbalahap rebels who were causing them problems. The CAT was supposed to be sold to the López brothers, Eugenio and Fernando, but the purchase was vetoed by President Ramon Magsaysay due to the brothers owning multiple businesses such as MERALCO, ABS-CBN, Manila Chronicle, Negros Navigation, as well as a number of substantial agricultural holdings, which the president deemed to problematic because the brothers were becoming too powerful. President Magsaysay then offered Central Azucarera de Tarlac to José Cojuangco Sr. through Benigno Aquino Jr (José's son-in-law) in early 1957. Aquino was Magsaysay's political prodigy and personal assistant at that time, which helped the Cojuangcos in purchasing CAT. As agreed upon, the hacienda would be paid for in pesos, while the CAT would be paid for in US dollars. The Philippine government aided the Cojuangcos in obtaining the loans needed to pay the price.
In 1957, José Cojuangco took control of CAT and the hacienda through Manufacturers Trust Company, New York, endorsed by the Central Bank of the Philippines, as well as the Government System Insurance Service (GSIS). The Central Bank approved the loan in August 1957 under two conditions, one of which states that CAT be acquired together with Hacienda Luisita and that the hacienda shall be distributed to farmers under the Magsaysay's social justice program. The government then authorized a P 5.9 million loan from GSIS which was approved in November 1957. The Cojuangco group was given a ten-year window to distribute the lands to farmers as stipulated. Finally on 1958, Cojuangco's Tarlac Development Corporation (TADECO) became the new owner of Hacienda Luisita as well as CAT. Aquino then became Luisita's first administrator.
Presidency of Ferdinand Marcos (1965–1986)
The year 1967 marked the end of the ten-year window given to the Cojuangcos in order to distribute the land. However, the Cojuangcos failed to distribute any land. In response, farmers began to organize themselves in order to push for the distribution. This was combined with political unrest in the country. The United Luisita Workers Union (ULWU) was created because of this. This was the same year Aquino was elected senator.
Martial Law was declared in the Philippines on 21 September 1972, and Aquino was among the first to be imprisoned for treason, murder, subversion and weapons possession. During this time, the Marcos administration took an interest in enforcing land reform.
Cojuangco died on 21 August 1976. On 7 May 1980, the government filed a case against TADECO before the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC). The case (Republic of the Philippines vs. TADECO, Civil Case No. 131654, Manila Regional Trial Court, Branch XLIII) sought the surrender of the hacienda to the Ministry of Agrarian Reform in order to properly distribute the land to the qualified farm workers. The Cojuangco group responded saying that there were no such tenants or farm workers qualified to receive such land. This was during the same time that Aquino and his family were to leave for exile in the United States. At the time, the anti-Marcos block portrayed this lawsuit as an attack on the Aquino family by the Marcoses, while the farmers viewed it as the government taking action to help them.
Aquino was assassinated on 21 August 1983. On 2 December 1985, the Manila RTC ordered TADECO to surrender Hacienda Luisita to the Ministry of Agrarian Reform (now, the Department of Agrarian Reform) due to noncompliance of the land reform act. TADECO alleged that the hacienda housed no tenants and that the hacienda's sugar lands were not covered by existing agrarian reform legislations. The Cojuangco group brought the case to the Court of Appeals due to their belief that the case was an act of harassment by the Marcos administration because Corazon Aquino ran against Marcos in the 1986 presidential election. Of note is that land reform was one of the issues her campaign focused on. The elections were fraught with anti-Marcos allegations and led to the People Power Revolution.
Presidency of Corazón Aquino (1986–1992)
Corazon Aquino became President of the Philippines after the People Power Revolution in 1986, which was backed by farmers across the country. Under her watch, the 1987 Constitution was drafted and ratified with a specific land reform section, namely Section 21 under Article II which stated that “The State shall promote comprehensive rural development and agrarian reform.” Despite her intention for agrarian reform, in the first months of her administration, her plans for farmers were hampered by coup attempts by Marcos loyalists, the massive debt incurred by the previous Marcos dictatorship, and the many Marcos cronies who continued to hold onto the vast lands they received under the Marcos decades. Because of these, the land distribution for the hacienda farmers was obstructed. Amid rising tensions, thousands of farmers marched to Malacañang Palace on 22 January 1987. 13 protesting farmers were shot in what is now known as the "Mendiola Massacre." President Aquino condemned the killings, and afterwards issued a series of promulgations for land reform against powerful land lords, including those loyal to the Marcos family. President Aquino personally launched 48 national consultations with farmers, agricultural peasant leaders, and peasant organizations in order to form a comprehensive land reform system that would be backed by law.