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Manila Bulletin devider devider Duterte says Cory Aquino championed agrarian reform only to exempt family's own land from it

Duterte says Cory Aquino championed agrarian reform only to exempt family's own land from it

Published Aug 2, 2019 10:57 pm

By Genalyn Kabiling

The late President Corazon Aquino may have been popular because of the death of her husband, but she made the incongruous decision of exempting her family estate from the agrarian reform program, she herself ordered implemented.

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his 4th State of the Nation Address at the House of Representatives in Quezon City on July 22, 2019. (KING RODRIGUEZ / PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO/ MANILA BULLETIN) President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his 4th State of the Nation Address at the House of Representatives in Quezon City on July 22, 2019. (KING RODRIGUEZ / PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO/ MANILA BULLETIN)

This was the contention made by President Duterte Friday night as he tried to recall a huge contradiction in Aquino, the democracy icon who introduced the landmark comprehensive agrarian reform program, a day after her 10th death anniversary.

"Cory Aquino may be popular, she is popular today. Why? For losing the husband at the hands of Mr. Marcos,” the President said during the Mindanao-wide ceremonial distribution of land certificates to agrarian reform beneficiaries in Davao City.

"But what is the fundamental reason why someday, 30 years from now, when we try to balance history? Because Aquino declared land reform for the entire Philippines but exempted Doña Luisita, her own land,” he added.

The President recognized though that many Filipinos were grateful for Aquino's contribution to regaining the country's democracy after the Marcos regime.  Three years after the death of Senator Benigno Aquino Jr., a bloodless EDSA People Power revolution ousted Marcos and installed the widow as the country's first woman president

"To the many, to those who really wanted to be freed from Marcos, that's another feeling, maybe of gratitude," Duterte said.

Duterte, however, pounced on the "incongruity" of Aquino's legacy on the agrarian reform program. “Hindi niya sinali 'yung sa kanya. She exempted her own so you call her what – the one who freed, emancipated. It’s an incongruity, they call it,” he said.

The comprehensive agrarian reform law was signed by Aquino in 1988. The law aimed to grant landless farmers and farmworkers ownership of around 7.8 million hectares of agricultural lands.

In 2012, the Supreme Court ordered the distribution of  Hacienda Luisita's 4,915-hectare agricultural lands to the original 6,296 beneficiaries. Last year, the court ruled the Cojuangco-owned estate had already complied with its order to distribute unused funds from the land sale proceeds.

Early this year, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) committed to continue to distribute portions of the Luisita estate to farmers.

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