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. 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. 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.
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. 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. 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). 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.
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. During this time, the Marcos administration took an interest in enforcing land reform. 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. === Presidency of
Corazón Aquino (1986–1992) === Corazon Aquino became President of the Philippines after the People Power Revolution in 1986, which was backed by farmers across the country. Under her watch, the 1987 Constitution was drafted and ratified with a specific land reform section, namely Section 21 under Article II which stated that “The State shall promote comprehensive rural development and agrarian reform.” Despite her intention for agrarian reform, in the first months of her administration, her plans for farmers were hampered by coup attempts by Marcos loyalists, the massive debt incurred by the previous Marcos dictatorship, and the many Marcos cronies who continued to hold onto the vast lands they received under the Marcos decades. Because of these, the land distribution for the hacienda farmers was obstructed. Amid rising tensions, 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." President Aquino condemned the killings, and afterwards issued a series of promulgations for land reform against powerful land lords, including those loyal to the Marcos family. President Aquino personally launched 48 national consultations with farmers, agricultural peasant leaders, and peasant organizations in order to form a comprehensive land reform system that would be backed by law. President Aquino issued Executive Order No. 228 in July 16, 1987, declaring full ownership to qualified farmer-beneficiaries covered by PD 27. It also determined the value remaining unvalued rice and corn lands subject of PD 27 and provided for the manner of payment by the FBs and mode of compensation to landowners. On July 22, 1987, she also issued Executive Order No. 229, providing mechanism for the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), and Proclamation No. 131, instituting the CARP as a major program of the government. It provided for a special fund known as the Agrarian Reform Fund (ARF), with an initial amount of Php50 billion to cover the estimated cost of the program from 1987-1992. On July 26, 1987, she issued Executive Order No. 129-A, streamlining and expanding the power and operations of the DAR. On 18 May 1988, the case the Marcos administration filed against TADECO was dismissed by the Court of Appeals, causing the Philippine government to move to dismiss its case. On 10 June 1988, Republic Act No. 6657 (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law) was signed into law by President Aquino. The law, which was the fruit of numerous government consultation with peasant farmers and organizations, became effective on June 15, 1988. It instituted a comprehensive agrarian reform program to promote social justice and industrialization providing the mechanism for its implementation and for other purposes. The law also 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, if the farmers, not the landowners, prefer that option. 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.
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. However, the Supreme Court issued a temporary
restraining order, stopping the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council from parceling out the land to the workers. During the presidency of
Noynoy Aquino, he prioritizes a long-tern plan to finally complete the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), which include the land distribution of Hacienda Luisita to local farmers. The Agrarian Reform Community Connectivity and Economic Support Services (ARCCESS) project was created by the Office of the President to contribute to the overall goal of rural poverty reduction especially in agrarian reform areas. Agrarian Production Credit Program (APCP) was also established to provide credit support for crop production to newly organized and existing agrarian reform beneficiaries’ organizations (ARBOs) and farmers’ organizations not qualified to avail themselves of loans under the regular credit windows of banks. President Aquino also launched the legal case monitoring system (LCMS), a web-based legal system for recording and monitoring various kinds of agrarian cases at the provincial, regional and central offices of the DAR to ensure faster resolution and close monitoring of agrarian-related cases. He also enacted Executive Order No. 26, Series of 2011, to mandate the Department of Agriculture-Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Department of Agrarian Reform Convergence Initiative to develop a National Greening Program in cooperation with other government agencies, benefiting the farmers across the country, including those from Hacienda Luisita. Following Aquino's long-term plan, agrarian land distribution in the Hacienda Luisita was finally completed in 2018. The last 117 farm workers in the hacienda were handed their certificates of land ownership award covering in December 2018. On 27 August 2019, President Duterte conducted a "ceremonial distribution" of land with the media. == Criticisms of ownership ==