DAR Desperate to Include 2 More Ineligible Parties in Auditing Process of Hacienda Luisita Desperate to tilt the balance in choosing an accounting firm in the auditing process of Hacienda Luisita in favor of Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI), the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) now wants the Supreme Court (SC) to add two more ineligible parties in said process. These are Luisita Industrial Park Corporation (LIPCO) and Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC). The DAR included this in their urgent motion and manifestation to the SC recently. LIPCO is owned by the Cojuangco’s while RCBC got 500 hectares of land from HLI as payment of its debt. RCBC also occupies a disputed land inside the Hacienda because it has not converted this for more than 5 years already. Under existing laws, this should be distributed to the farm worker beneficiaries. In fact, Alyansa ng Manggagawang Bukid sa Asyenda Luisita (AMBALA) through its lawyer had already filed two petitions for the revocation order on the conversion order of RCBC and on the cease and desist order on RCBC’s fencing of its disputed land. This has been un-acted upon for over a year now by DAR and the reason given is that because it is still being studied thoroughly. Surely both LIPCO and RCBC will side with HLI if the Supreme Court acts positively on their motion. AMBALA for its part reiterates its earlier position that it also submitted to the SC that: HLI being the party to be audited is deprived of the right to select or choose the auditing firm that will conduct the audit of its own books. This is to maintain the independence of the accounting firm and regularity of the accounting process. The farmworkers’ choice and not HLI’s should be taken into consideration. It is on behalf of the farmworkers that the audit is being conducted. They are the beneficiaries of the 1.33 billion pesos. They should be the proper party to approve the selection of the accounting firm and not HLI. This includes excluding LIPCO and RCBC in the selection process. Clearly DAR is desperate to salvage the auditing process because of its subservience to the Cojuangco’s and Aquino’s who own HLI. Press Release June 14, 2013 Source Verification: Gi Estrada Media Officer: Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) CP no. 09166114181
Posted on: Tue, 18 Jun 2013 01:22:19 +0000
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