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.^[3]

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.^[4] 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.^[5]

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.^[6] 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.^[4] 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.^[6]

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.^[6]

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.^[1]

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[6]

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.^[1] 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.^[1] 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.^[6] 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.^[7]

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).^[1] 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.^[7][8] 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.^[1] 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.^[6]

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.^[9][10]

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.^[11] During this time, the Marcos administration took an interest in enforcing land reform.^[12]

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.^[7] 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.^[10]

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.^[7][13][14]

Presidency of Corazón Aquino (1986–1992)

Despite the installation of Corazon Aquino as President of the Philippines, the hacienda was not being distributed. 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." On 22 July 1987, Aquino issues Presidential Proclamation 131 and Executive Order No. 229, which outlined her agrarian reform program. On 18 May 1988, the case the Marcos administration filed against TADECO was dismissed by the Court of Appeals, and the Philippine government, under the Aquino administration, moved to dismiss its own case. On 10 June 1988, the Republic Act No. 6657 (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law) is signed into law by President Aquino. The law includes a Stock Distribution Option (SDO) which would allow landowners to distribute the stock shares of the land to the farmers, instead of actual land.^[15]

In compliance with the CARP, 4915.75 hectares of Hacienda Luisita were folded into Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) on 23 August 1988, in order to comply with a stock distribution agreement between the landowners and farm workers. The hacienda's farmers voted 92.9% in favor of the SDO with regards to the land reform act. This agreement was implemented on 11 May 1989. The farm workers' therefore now owned 33% of the plantation, while the Cojuangco group retained ownership of the remaining 67% stock. In accordance with the SDO agreement, there would be a 30-year schedule for distributing and transferring the stocks to the farmers.^[13]

Completion of agrarian land distribution (1992-2019)

On 1 September 1995, 3,290 hectares of the hacienda were reclassified from agricultural to commercial, industrial, and residential land. This was passed by the Provincial Board of Tarlac, the governor of which was Margarita "Tingting" Cojuangco, wife of José Cojuangco Jr., brother of Cory Aquino. The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) approved the conversion of 500 hectares in 1996.^[13]

In 2003, hacienda workers filed a petition to have the SDO agreement revoked and in 2005, the DAR cancelled the stock distribution agreement. It was cited that the SDO had failed to improve the lives of the more than 5,000 farmer beneficiaries. HLI appealed this decision, but in May 2006, the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council rejected with finality the motion of HLI to reconsider the revocation of the stock distribution agreement.^[16] However, the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order, stopping the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council from parceling out the land to the workers.^[17][18]

Agrarian land distribution in the hacienda was completed during the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte in December 2018, after the last 117 farm workers in the hacienda have been handed their certificates of land ownership award covering 6,600 square metres (71,000 sq ft).^[19] On 27 August 2019, Duterte completed the distribution of remaining portions of land in the hacienda under the agrarian reform program in a ceremonial distribution of over 87,000 hectares (210,000 acres) of land.^[20]

Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP)

The signing into law of Republic Act No. 6657 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL) on 10 June 1988 signaled the beginning of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) under former President Corazon Aquino. One of the clauses of the CARP provided for a Stock Distribution Option (SDO), which would allow for compliance with the agrarian reform law by distributing stocks of the hacienda to the farm workers rather than actual land.^[23]

On 9 May 1989, a referendum was held among the farm workers of Hacienda Luisita to determine whether stocks or land would be the means by which the hacienda would be distributed. The results of the May 1989 referendum, as well as a second referendum held in October of the same year, found that a great majority of the Hacienda farm workers voted in favor of distribution of stock rather than land.^[13] The terms of the SDO agreement of the Hacienda are quoted as follows:

"At the end of each fiscal year, for a period of 30 years, the SECOND PARTY (HLI) shall arrange with the FIRST PARTY (TADECO) the acquisition and distribution to the THIRD PARTY (farm workers) on the basis of number of days worked and at no cost to them of one-thirtieth (1/30) of 118,391,976.85 shares of the capital stock of the SECOND PARTY (HLI) that are presently owned and held by the FIRST PARTY (TADECO), until such time as the entire block of 118,391,976.85 shares shall have been completely acquired and distributed to the THIRD PARTY (farm workers)."^[7]

The SDO agreement however was met with considerable criticism, most notably in 2003 when hacienda workers (farmers, HLI supervisory group workers, union officers) began filing petitions to the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to have the SDO agreement revoked due to their dividends and other promised benefits not being given. Daily wage was at P194.50, and there was only one working day per week, due to the mechanizing of some tasks in the hacienda. A petition with more than 5,300 signatures was filed to revoke the SDO agreement and stop land conversion in the hacienda.

In 2004, the workers' union tried to negotiate with the management to increase daily wages to P225 and increase work days to 2–3 days weekly. Management refused. In 1 October of that year, 327 workers (farm workers and union officers) were retrenched.^[13][24]

Land reform disputes