When the "good guys" are also the bad ones

I am not voting for Noynoy. I never was. I'm not voting for him now for the same reasons I did not vote for him then, when he was just running for senator.

Take away his surname and his pedigree, and you're left with nothing really striking enough that would make you believe he is the country's next leader.

That's what I think at least.

Reading about the history, and the bitter and bloody events that were all linked to Hacienda Luisita made me shudder at the realization that in our country, one really good myth can cover all of the holes in that story.

A condensed timeline:

• Hacienda Luisita belonged to the Spanish-owned Compaña General de Tabacos de Filipinas (Tabacalera). Tabacalera acquired the land in 1882 from the Spanish crown, which had a self-appointed claim on the lands as the Philippines' colonial master. Luisita was named after Luisa, the wife of the top official of Tabacalera

• Ninoy Aquino wanted the azucarera and hacienda to stay only within the immediate family of his father-in-law, not to be shared with the other Cojuangcos, wrote American development studies expert James Putzel in his 1992 book A Captive Land: The Politics of Agrarian Reform in the Philippines… The exclusion of Jose Cojuangco, Sr.'s brothers and their heirs from Luisita caused the first major rift in the Cojuangco family, Putzel wrote. This played out years later in the political rivalry of Jose's son Peping and Eduardo's son Danding. Today, this divide is seen between Noynoy Aquino (grandson of Jose Sr., nephew of Peping) and Gibo Teodoro (grandson of Eduardo Sr., nephew of Danding), who are both running in the 2010 presidential elections.

• Cojuangco had to pay the Spaniards in dollars… To ease the flow of foreign exchange for Cojuangco's loan, the Central Bank of the Philippines deposited part of the country's international reserves with the Manufacturer's Trust Company in New York… on the condition that Cojuangco would simultaneously purchase the 6,443-hectare Hacienda Luisita, "with a view to distributing this hacienda to small farmers in line with the Administration's social justice program."

• The GSIS approved a P5.9 million loan, on the condition that Hacienda Luisita would be "subdivided among the tenants who shall pay the cost thereof under reasonable terms and conditions".

• Later, Jose Cojuangco, Sr. requested that the phrase be amended to ". . . shall be sold at cost to tenants, should there be any" (GSIS Resolution No. 356, February 5, 1958). This phrase would be cited later on as justification not to distribute the hacienda's land.

• The Cojuangcos' disputed hold over Hacienda Luisita had been tolerated by Marcos even at the height of his dictatorship. However, as Ninoy Aquino and his family were leaving for exile in the US, a case was filed on May 7, 1980 by the Marcos government against the Cojuangco company TADECO for the surrender of Hacienda Luisita to the Ministry of Agrarian Reform, so land could be distributed to the farmers at cost, in accordance with the terms of the government loans given in 1957-1958 to the late Jose Cojuangco, Sr., who died in 1976.

• The Cojuangcos said that the Central Bank and GSIS resolutions were unenforceable because there were no tenants on Hacienda Luisita… there was no agrarian unrest in Luisita, and existing Marcos land reform legislation exempted sugar lands.

• Cory Aquino officially announced her candidacy on December 3, 1985. Land reform was one of the pillars of her campaign… Aquino also said, "You will probably ask me: Will I also apply it to my family's Hacienda Luisita? My answer is yes."

• On January 22, 1987, eleven months into the Aquino administration, the Mendiola massacre happened… Aquino fast-tracked the passage of the land reform law. On July 22, 1987, Aquino issued Presidential Proclamation 131 and Executive Order No. 229 outlining her land reform program. She expanded its coverage to include sugar and coconut lands. Her outline also included a provision for the Stock Distribution Option (SDO), a mode of complying with the land reform law that did not require actual transfer of land to the tiller.

• On May 18, 1988, the Court of Appeals dismissed the case filed in 1980 by the Philippine government—under Marcos—against the Cojuangco company TADECO to compel the handover of Hacienda Luisita. It was the Philippine government itself—under Aquino—that filed the motion to dismiss its own case against TADECO, saying the lands of Hacienda Luisita were going to be distributed anyway through the new agrarian reform law.

• A month after the case was dismissed, Aquino signed the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law. Soon after, Hacienda Luisita was put under the Stock Distribution Option (SDO) that Aquino included in the law. Through the SDO, landlords could comply with the land reform law without giving land to farmers.

From part one of the five-part series. Fast-forward 17 years later: 

• …picketers George Loveland and Ernesto Ramos were shot at the west gate of Las Haciendas subdivision inside Hacienda Luisita, where they were manning a checkpoint. Both survived, but suffered gunshot wounds to the chest and stomach.

• Loveland said he recognized his assailants as plainclothes security men who were with then-Congressman Noynoy Aquino's convoy when Aquino entered Las Haciendas subdivision three days before… Before entering Las Haciendas, Loveland said, Aquino alighted from his vehicle and addressed the picketers about a "superhighway".
  
  LOVELAND: Sinasabi niya po yung hinihingi daw po niyang pabor yung sa superhighway na hinihingi niya . . . (He was talking about a favor for the superhighway that he was asking for . . .)
  
  SENATOR OSMEÑA: Ano tungkol sa superhighway (What about the superhighway)?
  
  LOVELAND: Project niya daw po, sir . . . (He said it was his project . . . )
  
  OSMEÑA: Ano ang hiningi ni Congressman Aquino (What did Congressman Aquino ask for)?
  
  LOVELAND: Yung ipatupad, sir, yung kuwan expressway, sir (To let it happen, sir, the expressway, sir).
  
  OSMEÑA: Yung galing sa Subic at Clark (The one from Subic and Clark)?

• At the fifth Congressional hearing on the Garci issue on June 30, 2005, three days after Arroyo's televised "I am sorry" speech, Rep. Noynoy Aquino voted against playing the "Hello Garci" tapes. But on July 8, 2005, the Aquinos dropped their support for Arroyo.

• Luisita farm workers that GMANews.TV spoke to believe the Aquinos' abrupt withdrawal of support for Arroyo had something to do with the hacienda. The Aquinos broke ties with Arroyo in July 2005, the same month the DAR's Task Force Luisita submitted the findings and recommendations of its investigation. This formed the basis for the government's decision a few months later to revoke Luisita's Stock Distribution Option (SDO) and order the distribution of the hacienda's land to the farmers.

From part four of the five-part series.

As we all know, the land is still not distributed to the farmers. How then can anyone believe Noynoy when he said that the farmers will each have a piece of the Hacienda by 2014? The Cojuangcos have held on that land for as long as they could, using various reasons—and even the law—to tighten their hold on the Hacienda.

When Noynoy announced his bid for the presidency, I stayed at home to watch the press conference, not because I wanted him to run, but because I was hoping, fervently, that he wouldn't.

The five-part series on Noynoy and Hacienda Luisita is up on GMANEWS.TV. Read parts one, two, three and four. I can't wait to read the last one.