Friday, November 25, 2011 H H 17 sections / Vol. 26 / No. 350 P18 www.inquirer.
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SWEET AND SOUR
The landmark
decision of the
Supreme Court
ordering the
distribution of land
is sweet victory for
Hacienda Luisita
workers. For the
Cojuangcos, it spells
the end of the family’s
control of the vast
sugarcane plantation
and sugar milling
business in Tarlac
province. Photo shows
workers loading
sugarcane on a truck
on Wednesday.
TONETTE OREJAS/INQUIRER
CENTRAL LUZON
‘My child, we have won’
Arroyo
doctors at
odds with
her lawyers
By DJ Yap
DOCTORS attending to former
President Gloria Macapagal-Ar-
royo reportedly refused at one
point to sign a medical certifi-
cate prepared by her lawyers.
Arroyo’s physicians at St.
Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig
City were torn between adher-
ing to the doctor-patient privi-
lege and disclosing the actual
state of her health, a high gov-
ernment official said. But he did
not name names.
One of the doctors even sug-
gested that Arroyo, now a rep-
resentative of Pampanga, be
moved to another hospital, said
the official who spoke on condi-
tion of anonymity because of
the sensitive nature of the case.
“GMA is already fine. But the
doctors are facing a dilemma on
whether they can release this in-
ARROYO / A11
OFWs come
home for high
paying jobs
WHILE many continue to seek
greener pastures abroad, some
overseas Filipino workers (OFWs)
are going against the tide to take
up job offers at home.
One such OFW is Malaysia-based
computer whiz Arlene Teodoro who
packed his bags and flew home to
the Philippines this year.
Forced to leave his family and
friends in 2008 in search of a de-
cent job overseas, the 35-year-old
bachelor is back for good because
his skills are suddenly in big de-
mand amid a business process
outsourcing boom.
“Nothing compares to being
back in the Philippines,” said
Teodoro, who was part of a
OFWS/ A20
Mobile Alert: Text INQ ON BREAKING to 4467
80-year-old ‘lola’ gives thanks for piece of land
IN HER LIFETIME Virginia “Lola Inyang” Paligutan, 80, traveled to Manila from Tarlac to express her
gratitude to the Supreme Court for ordering the distribution of land in Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac to
farmworkers.
LUISITA STATEMENT
‘The hacienda is no more’
By Daxim L. Lucas
and Kristine L. Alave
A SPOKESPERSON said Ha-
cienda Luisita Inc. (HLI) would
respect the Supreme Court de-
cision calling for the distribu-
tion to workers of the estate
owned by the family of Presi-
dent Aquino that the INQUIRER
Church revises Roman Missal
By Jerome Aning
WHILE Roman Catholics in the
United States will be using a
revised missal at the start of
the Christmas season on Sun-
day, Catholics in the Philip-
pines will have to wait another
WORLD
Yemen celebrates
end of Saleh’s
33-year rule / A30
ACROSS
Farmers to march 160 km
for return of coconut levy / A17
RADYO
learned yesterday owed San
Miguel Corp. (SMC) P2 billion.
An SMC source said the farm-
worker-beneficiaries could be
saddled with the debt from the
nation’s highly diversified con-
glomerate of which Mr.
Aquino’s uncle, Eduardo
“Danding” Cojuangco, is chair.
Cojuangco was a major contrib-
year to do so.
Caloocan Bishop Deogracias
Iñiguez said the Catholic Bish-
ops’ Conference of the Philip-
pines (CBCP) already had an
English version of the Roman
Missal. But it needs to be trans-
lated into various native lan-
BUSINESS
Traders remain
upbeat over PH
prospects / B1
ENTERTAINMENT
Fil-Am star of ‘Godspell’
charms critics / I1
NIÑO JESUS ORBETA
utor to the President’s election
campaign last year.
“I’m not saying that they (ha-
cienda owners) are happy. But
they respect it. We shall abide
it,” said Tony Ligon, HLI
spokesperson.
“It’s not an hacienda any-
more. It will be owned by indi-
THE HACIENDA/ A22
guages in the Philippines, he
said.
“We already have an English
translation but we’re still wait-
ing for it to be translated to the
vernacular. We’ll be using the
revised missal starting the First
CATHOLIC/ A9
SPORTS
Talks resume
to end NBA
lockout / A36
INQUIRER 990AM
By Leila B. Salaverria in Manila
and Tonette Orejas in Concepcion, Tarlac
WHEN NEWS broke that the Supreme Court had
decided to break up Hacienda Luisita and dis-
tribute the sprawling sugar plantation to farmers,
80-year-old Virginia Paligutan wept.
She shed tears of joy because Comprehensive Agrarian Re-
hacienda workers, who had form Program (CARP), had
been caught in the vortex of a gone to the hills and joined the
decades-long period of peasant New People’s Army.
unrest over a feudal land own- Valentino, then 52, died of a
ership system, would finally get gunshot wound in an encounter
a piece of the vast estate strad- with government troops in
dling Tarlac City and the towns 2005.
of Concepcion and La Paz. “My child, we have won,” she
Virginia recalled that one of remembered saying on hearing
her sons, Valentino, who was re- the Supreme Court ruling.
trenched from the hacienda af- “We have worked so hard for
ter it encountered worker this,” Virginia told the INQUIRER
protests over a stock distribu- outside the Supreme Court
tion arrangement in lieu of land building, where she had joined
distribution under the 1988 MY CHILD/ A22
DAR chief: We’re ready
to distribute the land
By Kristine L. Alave that the court ruling, directing
and Marlon Ramos
AGRARIAN Reform Secretary
Virgilio delos Reyes yesterday
that the 5,000-hectare estate
owned by the family of President
Aquino, could still be appealed
by Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI).
said he was prepared to dis- DAR CHIEF/ A22
tribute Hacienda Luisita to its
workers once the Supreme Highlights of the Hacienda
Court decision ordering this be-
comes final.
Luisita decision •Sweet
Delos Reyes said he expected justice for farmers / A23