“State forces will always be there to call us into submission, to prevent us from performing our sworn duties as lawyers. But I come to realize that there is no other way to stop the rights violations but to fight. Fight the system that breeds them.”
By RONALYN V. OLEA
“The promissory note will make it easier for DAR and the Cojuangco-Aquinos to evict the farm worker-beneficiaries from their land. If the farm workers are unable to pay, their land would be confiscated.” – Jobert Pahilga, lawyer of Ambala
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Jobert Pahilga, lawyer of the farm workers’ group Alyansa ng Manggagawang Bukid sa Hacienda Luisita (Ambala), enumerates some of the provisions of the compromise agreement that are inimical to the interest of the farm workers.
Jobert Ilarde Pahilga, the lawyer of Hacienda Luisita farmers challenging the stock distribution option (SDO) being implemented in the plantation owned by the family of President Benigno S. Aquino III, explains in this “video primer” the SDO, why the Cojuangco-Aquino family was hell-bent on it, why the lives of the farmers did not improve in spite of it, and why these farmers and peasants are opposed to it. 
Watch the video
By RONALYN V. OLEA
“We will definitely question in all forums available to us the standing of these individuals with whom HLI management negotiated and hold them accountable for their acts,” said Jobert Ilarde Pahilga, a lawyer for the farm workers.
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Sidebar: A History of Deception in Hacienda Luisita | Sidebar: President Aquino Can Be Held Equally Liable for ‘Grand Deception’ vs. Luisita Farmers | Previous story: ‘Breakthrough Deal’ Is a Lie Meant to Sway Supreme Court Decision on Hacienda Luisita, Say Farmers | Previous story: How Hacienda Luisita Stock Scheme Led to Farmers’ Misery | Read the compromise agreement | Full coverage: Hacienda Luisita
Jobert Ilarde Pahilga, the lawyer for the farm workers in Hacienda Luisita, said HLI’s compromise agreement is “the third time that the Cojuangcos-Aquinos betrayed agrarian reform and the HLI farm workers.”