FINAL REPORT - Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism

He narrated that on 6, 7 and 15 November 2004, despite their peaceful strike,
hundreds of police officers attempted to break up the picket line using tear gas, water
cannon, truncheons and later firearms, which seriously injured many strikers.
Despite the threat of an impending bloody dispersal, the strikers nevertheless
stood their ground. On the other hand, President Macapagal-Arroyo and her
government simply turned a cold shoulder to the plight of the striking workers. Her
deafening silence was interpreted as acquiescence to the police violence in Hacienda
Luisita. Worse, her alter ego at the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE),
Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas, issued an Assumption of Jurisdiction Order (AJ) on 10
November 2004. Although it was issued solely against Central Azucarera de Tarlac
Labor Union (CATLU), curiously, said AJ was forcibly served upon ULWU. More
strangely, the Labor Secretary deputized not only the police but also the Armed Forces
in the full implementation of the AJ.
To avert further violence perpetrated against the strikers, in the morning of 16
November 2004, the respective officers of ULWU and CATLU, Mr. Galang included,
went to the Makati residence of former Congressman Peping Cojuangco, one of the
owners of Hacienda Luisita. Their purpose was to negotiate with the former
congressman and his wife to spare the people from the looming violent and bloody
dispersal of the strike as enunciated in the AJ. Insisting that the ULWU officers no
longer had any personality to talk with them because they were deemed dismissed,
Mr. Cojuangco and his wife denied the ULWU officers entry into their house.
No agreement was reached during the negotiation. Mr. Cojuangco stood firm on
his stance to leave the matter to the decision of the DOLE. Thus, the union officers
went back to the picket lines in Hacienda Luisita. They noticed the presence of
hundreds of PNP elements and AFP soldiers in full battle gear positioned inside the
sugar mill compound. The state forces were aided by two armored personnel carriers
(APCs), two pay loaders and four fire trucks. Only the steel gate at Gate 1 of the sugar
mill separated the combined military and police forces from the strikers.
Immediately thereafter and without any negotiation taking place between the
strikers and the dispersal teams, the latter assaulted the strikers. The raw video
footage presented by Mr. Galang shows that the dispersal teams blasted the strikers
with water from the fire trucks which stung their skin. Tear gas was also used against
the strikers. Failing to crush the picket line, the dispersal teams commandeered an
APC that was used to ram the steel gate separating the state forces and the strikers.
When the gate was smashed open, the people started throwing stones or anything they
could put their hands on at the APC to thwart the attempt to disperse them. The
video footage shows the strikers and their supporters raising their hands in jubilation
after their defensive actions caused the APC to retreat. Shortly after, successive
gunshots were heard as the state forces indiscriminately fired upon the people. Every
one scampered and ran for cover. Thereafter, seven strikers lay dead while a number
of others sustained gunshot wounds, many of them severe. A little while later, more
than a hundred other strikers were illegally arrested and arbitrarily detained en masse
by the military and the police, not sparing women, one of whom was seven months
pregnant.
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