TARLAKENYO (December 4, 2024) – The country’s highest court said that Hacienda Luisita Inc (HLI) has “fully complied” with its order to distribute unused funds from the sale of over 500 hectares of its land.
In a resolution, the Supreme Court said that the Cojuangco-owned estate already complied with its order to distribute to 6,296 land reform farm worker-beneficiaries unspent funds from the P1.33-billion sale of its 580.51-hectare land.
Five hundred hectares of the estate were converted to a mix of residential and commercial use while the remaining portion was expropriated for the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway.
The court’s decision followed findings by a three-member audit panel which showed that HLI’s expenses — including the 3% share already distributed to beneficiaries — from 1998 to 2011 exceeded the proceeds from the sale.
As a result, the court concluded there was “no more unspent balance available for distribution.”
This audit was part of the Supreme Court’s landmark April 24, 2012, unanimous ruling ordering the redistribution of Hacienda Luisita’s 4,915-hectare agricultural lands to the original beneficiaries under the agrarian reform program.
Separately in October, President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr released almost 219 hectares of farmlands within Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac province and condoned up to P12.1 million in dues that more than 300 farmers there owed the government.
The area is part of the estimated 4,200 ha of land in Tarlac that the President and the Department of Agrarian Reform awarded to beneficiaries as part of the government’s continuing effort to implement the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.
