Sereno: I voted fairly on Hacienda Luisita

SUPREME COURT Associate Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno dismissed allegations that she had shown partiality to the family of President Benigno S. Aquino III in voting on the Hacienda Luisita issue, saying she had never recommended that the land be sold for ten billion pesos to the farmer-beneficiaries.

During her interview by the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) as one of 20 aspirants to the position of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Sereno said charges that she tried to set a high value for the 5,000 hectare property in favor of the Cojuangco family were unfair.

Militant groups had accused Sereno of voting in favor of the Cojuangco-Aquino family by setting the land value of the Hacienda at 2006 levels, when the government placed the Hacienda under coverage of the comrpehensive agrarian reform program. The militants say that this effectively placed the land value at ten billion pesos, or way beyond the reach of the 6,000agrarian reform farmer-beneficiaries who would have to pay the amount to the Cojuangco family.

Sereno however stressed that she had never set a value for the land. Sereno said the only matter that the court had to decide on was whether to immediately have the land distributed to farmer-beneficiaries.

Hacienda Luisita had been owned by the Cojuangco family before it was placed under the agrarian reform program. In 1989, the Cojuangco family opted for the stock distribution option, wherein stocks were distributed to farmer-beneficiaries instead of actual land. In 2006, the government ruled that the stock distribution option was void, and placed the Hacienda under CARP. In November 2011, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of the immediate distribution of the land.

“Hindi namin napagusapan kung magkano talaga,” Sereno told the JBC. “Basta ako, distribute na kaagad. Sundin lang ang formula. Ganun kasimple. Pero marami ang nagsasabi na ganun, ganyan…”

“Walang katotohanan na nais kong pahirapan ang mga magsasaka. Ang sabi ko, regardless of compensation, distribute the land,” she added.

Sereno has come under criticism for her alleged links to President Aquino. Sereno was the first Associate Justice to be appointed by President Aquino to the Supreme Court.

Sereno said the records will show that she and five other Associate Justices merely voted to let the Special Agrarian Reform Court determine the value of the Hacienda. This was affirmed by Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta, who sits as presiding chairman of the JBC, and who also voted with Sereno.

Eight other Justices voted that the basis for just compensation for the Hacienda should be the valuation of the land in 1989.

Sereno said there was a uniform formula being used by the government to determine just compensation. Nevertheless, she said the value would not be set by the Supreme Court, as the Supreme Court does not rule on factual issues but on questions of law.

She also acknowledged that there may have been “historic injustices” behind Hacienda Luisita, but that the court “was not in a position to correct historic injustices.” Sereno referred to reports that the land had been acquired by the Cojuangcos using a conditional government loan that stipulated that the Hacienda be turned over to the tenants after ten years.

“If the facts and evidence are not on record and it is not an issue, regardless of what I feel about the history of Luisita, I have no right to probe something that the parties have never litigated,” she said.

At the same time Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco, the last aspirant to be interviewed by the JBC, said he had initially thought that Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio should be appointed Chief Justice on account of his seniority.

Velasco told the JBC that he had always been a firm believer in following tradition through the appointment of the most senior Justice as the Chief Justice.

However, Velasco said he later changed his mind and offered himself as an aspirant to the post, saying failure to do so would show “selfishness” on his part.

“I initially thought that Justice Carpio should be appointed because of seniority,” Velasco told the JBC. “I strictly follow the seniority in our court.”

“I had a change of mind because I may be considered a selfish person if I will not allow myself to be considered for nomination. I realized that I have a wealth of experience behind me,” Velasco said.