The involvement of former agrarian reform chief Florencio Abad in the resolution of the Hacienda Luisita land dispute case is bad news for the tenants, a Nacionalista Party stalwart warned Tuesday.

NP senatorial bet Adel Tamano said Abad served as former President Corazon Aquino’s agrarian reform secretary when the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) was executed.

While Mrs. Aquino called for the immediate implementation of the CARP, she spared the Cojuangco-owned Hacienda Luisita from the program.

Tamano, spokesman of Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. the party’s standard bearer, said the Hacienda Luisita issue should have been settled during the term of former President Aquino and Abad term and not when and if Liberal Party Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III becomes president.

“It was even more of a moral imperative during their term to address the land issue,” Tamano said.
“Two decades later, who would believe that a (Noynoy) Aquino presidency would be any different? If Noynoy wins, the farmers should brace for another half a century of ‘tenant-ship’,” Tamano said.

Tamano said he is certain the Liberal Party would never be able to evade the land controversy even after the probability of an Aquino administration.

“The LP should remember that there is no running away from the Hacienda Luisita issue. They can spin it all they want but facts are facts and the truth is, up to now the farmer-tenants there are still crying out for justice,” Tamano said.