Liberal Party standard-bearer Noynoy Aquino and his cohorts are committing grave and brazen acts of dishonesty on the issue of land reform, specifically on the just demand of farmers and farm workers for the redistribution of the vast Hacienda Luisita landholding owned by his family.

When the New York Times pointed out the issue, the Philippine Daily Inquirer acted as proxy for Aquino and sought to destroy the credibility of the report, accusing the article of using sources that are “ideologically” opposed to Aquino. The Inquirer, of course, refers to the Left which has long championed the cause of agrarian reform and exposed the sham that is the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

Weeks later, an Aquino fan came out with a blog post accusing GMANews.tv of all sorts of breaches of journalism ethics. The crime of the GMANews.tv writer and editor was calling attention to the issue of the lack of substantive land reform in Hacienda Luisita.

Aquino himself has being eating his own words on land reform for breakfast, lunch, dinner and merienda every day since last year. First, he said he is open to convincing his family, the Cojuangcos, to finally give up Hacienda Luisita. Next, he claims he can’t do much because he just owns a miniscule percentage of the holding company that now owns it. Then, he changes tack, vowing to redistribute it in so and so number of years. In yet another instance, he sheds crocodile tears for farmers and farm workers, explaining that the Cojuangcos don’t wish to redistribute land because that would mean that they would also pass on the landholding’s debts to them.

The stark reality that demolishes all the lies of Aquino and his cohorts is this: The Cojuangcos still own Hacienda Luisita and they still deprive the farmers and farm workers their just share of the land.

Some fanatical supporters of Aquino opportunistically label the Hacienda Luisita issue as “a tired refrain” and have routinely accused the Left, especially Makabayan/Nacionalista Party senatorial candidates Satur Ocampo and Liza Maza, of resurrecting the issue every time, to the extent that Ocampo and the farmers and farm workers are blamed for their plight. This, of course, reflects how Aquino and his camp view the issue of land reform.

Land reform is not a Left issue. It is a democratic issue that affects the majority who live in rural areas. As long as governments and landlords like Aquino attempt to lie, gloss over and demonize land reform, we will deny the rural majority their economic and political rights and consign them to grinding and never-ending poverty.

To remind Filipinos of this continuing crime in Hacienda Luisita and other places of feudal tyranny, Kodao Productions released this short film:

We may disagree on our choices for president, but I presume that we could find common cause in putting an end to the dispossession of our brothers and sisters in the provinces.