NEWS RELEASE

January 6, 2005, Thursday

For Immediate Release

 Attention:   All News Bureaus

Reference:   ULWU-CATLU Media Bureau

                        azucarrera@yahoo.com

RENE GALANG, President, United Luisita Workers Union (ULWU)

                   Contact #:  0920-8015401

Workers blame Congressman Noynoy Aquino

Two strikers shot in Hacienda Luisita barricade

Hacienda Luisita, Tarlac City – Unidentified armed men rammed into a barricade of striking workers in Hacienda Luisita Wednesday night [January 5] and shot two [2] union members , at the exact spot where Congressman Benigno Aquino III told protesters on the night of January 2 that any talk with the strikers is doomed to fail.

Four gun men on board a Nissan Patrol driving from inside Las Haciendas De Luisita and coming out to the west gate drove through the makeshift barricade manned by striking workers at about 10 pm Wednesday night and shot Jorge Loveland, 32, resident of Barangay Balete, Tarlac City and critically wounded Ernesto Ramos, 50, of Barangay Mapalacsiao, uncle of CATLU president, Ricardo Ramos.

Malou Ricardo, an eyewitness said four men armed with .45 pistols and and a M-16 rifle on board a gray Nissan Patrol with plate No. TLA 119 angrily alighted from the vehicle and said “Bakit ninyo kami hinaharang? Putang-nyo! Nagbabayad kami dito, mga homeowners kami,” after which they began shooting at the protesters.

Doctors at the Ramos General Hospital, where the victims were rushed, pronounced Loveland, who was hit by a single bullet in the upper left breast, in stable condition. Ramos, who was also hit by a single bullet in the stomach is in critical condition and will undergo a major operation.

It was on this exact spot where on Sunday night, January 2, Congressman Benigno Aquino III, talked to protesters and blamed them for the prolonged labor dispute.

“Hilaw ang pag-uusap natin. Kung bakit maliit ang sweldo ninyo ay dahil umuutang kayo. Matagal na kaming nag-usap ng inyong mga presidente. Batas na lang ang ipatupad natin.” Aquino told Felix Nacpil, an ULWU member, that night.

The workers said, Noynoy did  not say anything on how to settle the dispute, he just said “there is a problem and we [his family] will face the problem.”  He also said that union leaders, refering to the ULWU and CATLU, are the ones not negotiating.

“What he [Noynoy] said was absurd, we won’t be staying in our picket line for the past two months if only the Cojuangco clan agreed to settle the issues with us on a negotiating table,” Rene Galang, president of the United Luisita Workers Union [ULWU] said.  

Galang said that a day after Congressman Aquino’s visit, several vehicles fully-loaded with PNP personnel were seen passing by Gate 2 of the sugar mill on their way to barangay Mapalacsiao.

Later on that day, Parang barangay chairman Reynaldo Nemis accosted ANG BALA leader Ben Pamposa and his companion at gun point.  Pamposa’s motorcycle was damaged and illegally confiscated. His companion was attacked and suffered physical injuries.

Galang said these incidents events and the January 5 shooting point to Congressman Noynoy Aquino as the orchestrator. 

“With this recent shooting of our members, it is obvious that they have no plans of settling this dispute peacefully. They are again ready to inflict further violence on the people of the hacienda using another DOLE order as a pretext,” Ricardo Ramos, CATLU president said.

Ramos was referring to a DOLE order dated December 20 which gave both parties ten [10] days to submit their final pleadings after which Secretary Sto. Tomas will issue a final decision. The deadline has since expired.

CATLU did not submit a final pleading and chose instead to await the outcome of a certiorari case the union filed with the Court of Appeals.

“Secretary Sto. Tomas has lost all moral basis and authority to decide on the dispute. We will be filing appropriate cases against her for her accountability in issuing the illegal assumption of jurisdiction order and for deputizing the military to enforce the dispersal which led to the massacre. Thus, we ignored her December 20 order,” Ramos said.

Galang further explained that “the January 5 shooting and the Sto. Tomas’s final order are interlinked: the Cojuangcos and the Arroyo government are again preparing the ground for another bloody dispersal using another order from Sto. Tomas as pretext. The honorable congressman is acting as their point man on the gound.”///