Striking farmers of Hacienda Luisita Thursday urged Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Renato Corona to end the long-running land dispute inside the 6,453-hectare sugar estate owned by the family of President elect Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino.

Fifty militant farmers belonging to the Unyon ng Mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA), Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), Katipunan ng Samahang Magbubukid sa Timog Katagalugan (Kasama-TK) and the fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) who trooped to the SC Thursday asked Corona to resolve the problem in 100 days.

“We humbly submit to your honorable office our appeal asking the Supreme Court to act with dispatch and resolve the controversial agrarian case of Hacienda Luisita in favor of agrarian reform beneficiaries,” KMP deputy secretary-general Willy Marbella said.

In their letter, Hacienda Luisita farm workers lamented to Corona that the High Court has yet to act on their collective interest to lift the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against the move of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to place the 6,453-hectare under land distribution to landless farm workers.

They stressed that Corona and 14 other justices of the high tribunal can lift the TRO it imposed against the decision of the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) to place Hacienda Luisita under land reform and have the sugar estate distributed to 10,000 farm worker beneficiaries.

“Honorable Chief Justice, the Supreme Court ruling favored the sugar barons of Hacienda Luisita and the landed aristocracy of Cojuangco-Aquino. It is in the highest interest of the Filipino people and farm workers of Hacienda Luisita to end this long-running feudal reign and exploitation with the immediate, unconditional and free distribution of Hacienda Luisita to 10,000 farm worker beneficiaries,” the letter said.

But aside from Hacienda Luisita, militant groups likewise requested the High Court to review high profile cases of land reform reversals and big time denials of peasant land rights in Southern Tagalog region.

They were referring to the case of farmers in Hacienda Looc, a prime agricultural land that was at first placed under the land reform program but was reversed by the Department of Agriculture to allegedly pave the way for real estate projects of Manila South Coast Development Corporation, a sister company of SM Holdings Inc. and Fil-Estate Realty Corporation.

Should the problem of Hacienda Looc would not be resolved, they said that at least 10,000 farming families will be evicted from their farmlands.

“Such land reform reversal policy of the state exempting commercial farms and expanding with coverage for exemptions that now include coconut lands has become a long running nightmare for millions of landless farmers and still land seeking farmer beneficiaries across the country,” the farmers said.

“Honorable Chief Justice, perhaps it is time for the High Court to take a decisive intervention on cases involving agrarian disputes all over the country. Many hacienda owners and their private partners are behaving extremely nowadays starting with Hacienda Luisita and recently Hacienda Looc in Nasugbu, Batangas and Hacienda Yulo in Canlubang, Calamba City, province of Laguna,” they added.

KMP said the continuing denial of peasant land rights and the left-and-right land reform reversals all over the archipelago are sending the High Court a compelling signal to purse a thoroughgoing agrarian reform in aid of pro-people’s jurisprudence.

“We hope this letter of appeal would merit the attention of your honorable office and the offices of 14 other justices of the Supreme Court,” Marbella said.