A pro-farmer lawmaker called on Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III on Tuesday to act fast on the Hacienda Luisita conflict to preclude another bloody encounter between its management and farmers in the face of the former's October 30 ultimatum against the latter.

The call was made in light of Aquino's pronouncement that his family might just give up its stake in the hacienda considering the headaches it has been causing them.

Anakpawis Party-list Representative Rafael Mariano said given his pronouncement, Aquino should lose no time to address the issue lest he would run out of time to step in and stop another brewing unrest inside Hacienda Luisita.

“Noynoy has exactly 45 days to intervene and stop the Luisita management’s October 30 ultimatum against farmers,” Mariano said in reference to a memorandum dated December 18, 2008, issued by Hernan Gregorio Jr., Assistant Estate Manager of HLI, to farmers and farm workers who have cultivated and grown crops in more than 2,000 hectares of the Hacienda.

Mariano said “Aquino’s hazy statement to leave Luisita is like evading responsibility and delivery of social justice to farmers whose rights over the lands were long been denied by the Cojuangcos.”

The Luisita management said that the memorandum “will serve as formal notice for [them] to discontinue and desist from using, cultivating, planting or possessing said parcel/s of land on or before October 30, 2009.”

“What will happen come October 30? We fear that the Luisita management will once more use force against farmers,” Aquino said.

He said that “knowing the Cojuangcos, the farmers and farm workers are now preparing for the worst.”

“Luisita farmers and farm workers are more than determined to defend their rights to own the lands,” stressed Mariano, chair of the peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas.

The Luisita management’s memorandum to farmers was based on the petition filed by Hacienda Luisita, Inc. before the Supreme Court questioning the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council’s revocation of the Stock Distribution Option scheme. The Supreme Court had issued a temporary restraining order to stop the DAR and PARC from distributing the lands.