Militant farmers will not budge in their demand for the dismantling of Hacienda Luisita and other large estates even under another Aquino presidency.

Peasants belonging to the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) claimed that whoever sits in Malacañang would have to tackle the issue of the parceling of the 6,400-hectare estate in Tarlac.

It would be a major headache for Sen. Noynoy Aquino in case he wins the presidency in the May 10 elections, they said.

The KMP and its regional allies in Southern Luzon, the Central Luzon, Northern Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao are pressing government to also junk the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program-Extension with Reform (CARPER) Law and replace it with House Bill 3059 or the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB) filed by the late Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran.

Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo and Gabriela Rep. Liza Maza had taken the cudgels for the farmers, who lost at least eight colleagues when soldiers and police allegedly fired at their picket line in November, 2004.

Ocampo and Maza are gunning for seats in the Senate as candidates of the Makabayan Coalition.

In spite of the alleged failure of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to distribute the land under its mandate, about 2,000 hectares of the estate, formerly owned by Tabacalera, have been transformed into rice farms by farmers and sugar workers who said their income now is much higher than their daily wage of P9.50 under the Cojuangco management.

KMP members and those from Kasama-Timog Katagalugan (Kasama-TK) claimed up to 80 percent of farmers nationwide did not benefit from CARP and its successor-law, CARPER Law.

CARPER extends the effectivity of CARP by five years and mandates the dismantling of estates for distribution of land to tenants and landless peasants.

Under GARB, farmers would receive land for free, with government paying the landlords. The measure also contemplates the provision of irrigation, technical support and other services to the farmers through the Department of Agriculture (DA) and DAR.

KMP warned of continuing peasant unrest unless GARB is passed and noted that all over Asia, farmers have started to assert their power as food producers.

"Rice culture has been battered by the commercialization of land and the commodification of water and inputs needed to produce grain. Peasants have increasingly been denied their power to manage rice production as they should," the Asian Peasant Coalition (APC) also claimed.

Asia produces 90 percent of its rice in 135 million hectares of land and nearly 3 billion people depend on it for food and livelihood. There are a total of 140,000 varieties of rice all over the world.