MANILA, 17 November 2004 — At least seven people were killed and many more wounded yesterday in a clash between security forces and striking farm workers at a sugar hacienda owned by the family of former President Corazon Aquino, officials and hospital staff said.
Officials said 17 people, including police officers, were wounded as hundreds of protesters fought soldiers and police trying to disperse their rally with tear gas and water cannons at the gates of the Central Azucarera de Tarlac sugar mill.
Doctors at a nearby hospital said three of the slain workers died from gunshot wounds.
Estrella Ong, a midwife assisting emergency room staff at Tarlac Provincial Hospital, said about 30 others also suffered gunshot wounds, other injuries and tear gas inhalation.
Fifty strikers were also arrested for carrying weapons and guns, according to Labour Undersecretary Benedicto Ernesto Bitonio.
Tarlac City Mayor Genaro Mendoza said the security forces were just implementing a return-to-work order issued by the Labor Department after a deadlock in collective bargaining negotiations between the plantation’s management and the workers.
“We are trying to restore order in Hacienda Luisita,” he told television as the violence was going on. “We appeal to national government officials to step into the labor dispute to prevent further violence.
Elmer Labog of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), an activist group that joined the strike, said 6,000 workers from the sugarcane estate went on a general strike 11 days ago to demand a 48-peso ($0.85) daily wage increase and hospital benefits.
He said the estate management had refused to negotiate, leading to a deadlock. Violence erupted on Monday, he said, when police tried to enforce a labor department order allowing free passage of trucks loaded with sugarcane into the sugar mill.
“The strike at Hacienda Luisita is more than just a labor problem,” Labog told Reuters.
“This is a concrete example of the social and class struggle between wealthy landlords and exploited Filipino people.”
Among those injured in the violence were a cameraman for ABS-CBN television and several police officers.
Police and strikers also clashed Monday, but no shots were fired. Police, overwhelmed by the number of strikers, retreated.
Yesterday, police, backed by soldiers with armored vehicles, were deployed to implement a Department of Labor order sending thousands of workers back to work and to clear the gates of the mill and hacienda.
ABS-CBN showed strikers pelting an armored vehicle with rocks as it tried to break down the steel gates barricaded by the workers. Other strikers used slingshots.
The workers struck Nov. 6 when their union reached a deadlock in collective bargaining negotiations with the management.
Rep. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, Aquino’s son, joined fellow congressman Rafael Mariano of the leftist Anakpawis party in condemning the violence but questioned “whether the condemnations were directed at the right party.”
He was apparently referring to communist rebels, who were suspected of provoking some of the workers into resorting to violence. He said security forces were “subjected to sniper fire” from a village adjacent to the hacienda.
Director Quirino de la Torre, the Central Luzon police chief, said the policemen and soldiers were hit by Molotov bombs and stones thrown by the strikers.
As if to confirm Aquino’s suspicion, Communist Party of the Philippines spokesman Gregorio Rosal called for support for the strikers, saying they were showing “true people power.”
Aquino assailed the strike which saw workers blockading the entrance to the sugar mill. “It is an illegal strike. No strike vote was called,” he said, referring to the two unions involved in the strike.
Aquino noted that 400 of the 736 workers in question had decided to return to work. “We have sought ways and means to alleviate the situation of our workers,” Aquino said.
Former Tarlac Rep. Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr., a brother of Mrs. Aquino and part owner of the hacienda, said some of the people that took part in the strike since last week were from the provinces of Pampanga and Nueva Ecija and were not part of the work force of the plantation.
The Cojuangcos own 67 percent of Hacienda Luisita and the rest is held by the workers.
The former congressman said management had left the issues to be resolved by the labor department.
Cojuangco said he received a copy of a press statement from the United Luisita Workers Union (ULWU) yesterday morning saying that it was not the group that initiated the picket.
Ronaldo Alcantara of ULWU-Nacusip said negotiations to amend provisions of the collective bargaining agreement between Hacienda Luisita Inc. and ULWU-Nacusip were ongoing and there was no “deadlock.”
Alcantara said in his statement that the small group of retrenched workers led by Rene Galang, a former official of ULWU-Nacusip, and Ric Ramos, president of Central Azucarera de Tarlac Labor Union (CATLU-NLU), were responsible for the recent incidents at the hacienda.
In a statement, Joey Romasanta, vice president for Hacienda Luisita, said the violence could have been prevented, but claimed the unions “ignored the order not to commit any acts to exacerbate the situation. (Additional input from Inquirer News Service & Agencies)
