THE
Philippines' Supreme Court has ordered the distribution of nearly
three-quarters of a vast sugar estate owned by the family of President Benigno
Aquino among farmers in a test of the government's will to speed up land
reform.
A feudal land ownership system in the
Southeast Asian country is among root causes of rural unrest that has fed a
communist insurgency over the last 40 years, hobbling growth in poor but resource-rich
rural communities.
The court last Tuesday voted to award about
4,300 hectares, or 70 percent, of the Hacienda Luisita estate to more than
6,000 farmer-beneficiaries after they opposed a stock-option scheme.
The stock scheme was offered as a way to get
around a 1988 land reform law that would have broken up the property.
Analysts said the ruling would test the
government's will to complete the distribution of 4.3 million hectares of
farmland across the country.
About 1 million hectares — most are under
litigation — are still to be awarded to landless farmers by 2014 when the land
reform programme ends.
The late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, through
his cronies, profited much from the local sugar industry, which enjoys trade
quotas from the United States. Breaking up the landholdings could change the
country's political landscape.
Reuters
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