Media and two powerful women’s battle of wills

When the government finally sided with the farmers, media could not help but speculate that it was all about politics.

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has canceled the 16-year-old stock distribution option (SDO) agreement of Hacienda Luisita, paving the way for the distribution to farmers of the agricultural estate of the family of former President Corazon Aquino. (The SDO had saved the estate from land reform during the incumbency of Mrs. Aquino.)

Prior to the unprecedented decision, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, The Manila Times, and BusinessWorld consistently followed the developments in the DAR’s probe of the case. Hacienda Luisita hit the front pages last year after seven people died when men in uniform tried to break the barricades set up by striking farmers and their supporters.

The Inquirer came out with a full-length article on the recommendation of the DAR task force to have the SDO revoked (October 1). It included a sidebar, which aired the side of the owners (“Luisita a political football-Noynoy). The Times and BusinessWorld also gave equal treatment to the opposing camps.

Because of the personalities involved in the issue, the government’s decision on the Hacienda Luisita case was given political color. Media reports never failed to mention the withdrawal of support of former president Aquino from President Arroyo. Malaya columnist Romeo Lim pointed out the suspicious timing of the review of Hacienda Luisita’s SDO. DAR said it was canceling the SDO agreement because it did not improve the lot of the more than 5,000 farmer beneficiaries. Why it took the DAR 16 years — and only after Mrs. Aquino publicly asked for President Arroyo’s resignation — to revoke the agreement has fueled speculations that the decision was tainted by politics.

The Daily Tribune played up the Hacienda Luisita controversy and treated it as a political story. It interviewed organizations as well as the opposition, who, analyzing the scrapped SDO, warned of negative implications to Mrs. Arroyo and her administration (“Militant group bases ‘moves’ to derail Luisita struggle,” October 2). Noticeable in the Tribune stories was the paper’s wrong reference to DAR; it called the agency DLR for “Department of Land Reform” (Sept. 26).

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