Tarlac folk decry demolition at Hacienda Luisita village

MABALACAT CITY — Residents of Sitio (sub-village) Obrero in Central village located in Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac City, have lamented what they called the illegal demolition of a structure by a team reportedly sent by the Central Azucarera de Tarlac (CAT) before dawn on Monday.

Central village Councilman Rolando Zuñiga asked government officials for help, saying that the demolition team did not have any court documents when they arrived and partially demolished an old structure beside his residence before 5 a.m.

“We were alarmed, as there were men who said they were sent by Azucarera de Tarlac here in Hacienda Luisita in Barangay Central. They have already demolished some houses here in Barangay Central,” Zuñiga said in a live Facebook feed.

Zuñiga said the demolition team, which was composed of about 15 men carrying sledge hammers, only had with them a “notice” allegedly from the CAT.

“They didn’t have a court order. They just started demolishing, and they’ve already torn down several houses. We’re asking for help from the authorities,” he said.

According to Zuñiga, Central has a pending land dispute with CAT but insisted that the company could not just send a demolition crew without court authorization.

“What they brought earlier was a ‘notice,’ not a court order, and they suddenly started demolishing. Besides this, they are also tearing down structures in other sitios,” he added.

The video taken by Zuñiga’s daughter showed several men in blue uniforms hitting an old, uninhabited structure with sledge hammers before and after dawn. They were accompanied by security personnel.

Confrontation

When Zuñiga arrived, he asked the demolition team to stop and asked for a court order.

The team leader told the councilman to call the CAT management before leaving after the brief confrontation.

On June 11, the Tarlac City Council issued a resolution appealing to the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor to intervene in CAT’s unlawful detainer case against 989 families or households in Central village, who “stand to suffer demolition and eviction” from the land they were occupying.

Three days later, the Winace Security Agency, which provides security services to CAT, delivered a letter to the Central village hall, informing residents that checkpoints would be established in the area.

On July 5, a dialogue between Central village residents and the CAT was arranged in the presence of representatives from the commission and the Tarlac City government. The CAT and Winace Security Agency failed to attend the meeting.

In a separate resolution dated July 9, the city council said Winace set up tents and checkpoints at the entrance and exit points of Central on July 15, preventing residents from bringing in construction materials to repair their homes during the rainy season.

“Even the barangay council is deprived of its right to bring construction materials to complete an ongoing project,” the city council said.

Unlawful detainer

It said the CAT had filed unlawful detainer cases against each of the 989 households in Central.

An unlawful detainer is an eviction lawsuit filed by a landowner or landlord to get occupants or tenants out of the former properties.

The city council said CAT had offered each affected family a 50-square-meter relocation lot in Cut-cut II, Tarlac City, and P10,000 cash but they refused.

In the second resolution signed by Tarlac City Vice Mayor Genaro Mendoza, the city council appealed to CAT and Winace to remove the checkpoints and for CAT to continue its negotiation with the 989 families who stand to suffer demolition and eviction.

Apart from sugar mills and refineries, CAT is also involved in real estate business through its subsidiary, the Luisita Land Corporation, which the Philippine Stock Exchange described as a domestic company engaged in developing, leasing, and selling real properties and other ancillary services.

Hacienda Luisita is a 6,453-hectare agricultural area, mostly planted to sugarcane, which straddles La Paz and Concepcion towns and Tarlac City. Some 4,916 ha of it had been distributed to farm workers.

Formal notice

In a phone interview, Central chief Angelito Torres said it was in November 2019 that CAT had formally given residents a notice to vacate its land.

“CAT asked us to leave within 60 days. We did not comply because we have been living here for many decades. After the deadline, all 989 households were notified about the filing of legal cases against each family,” he said.

The village chief said unlawful detainer cases against some 50 families in his village were favored by the court and that writs for demolition had been issued against them.

But he clarified that none had been demolished so far, adding that the partial demolition of the uninhabited structure on Monday was the first incident of demolition in Central, contrary to Zuñiga’s claim that several houses in different sub-villages of Central had been demolished.

Torres said the village council would meet with Tarlac City officials and the Commission on Human Rights on Monday afternoon.

He said they would also ask the city council to investigate Monday’s illegal demolition.

According to Torres, around 21 hectares of Central are about 1,000 meters away from a mixed-use development of Ayala in Hacienda Luisita.

He said a fast-food restaurant, a grocery store, and a school were being constructed in the area.