SUPREME IRONY OF OUR TIMES

Even as the Supreme Court has finally spoken on the Hacienda Luisita case, the DAR is still certainly right in saying it would take from six months to one year for the farmers to reap up the full blessings of the Supreme Court's ruling.  As a matter of fact, one year is even an understatement.  To be able to identify the names of the farmers who are legitimately entitled to own lots out of more than 6,000 claimants -- no, some say there are actually close to 10,000 -- is surely bound to be a long and horrendous process.  That, against the naked truth that the DAR will bow out and die a natural death by year 2014 --  that's the law, unless Congress re-extends its life.

 The long process will surely exhaust many farmers of every wee patience still remaining in their lives after their long wait.  It is not, then, a far-fetched speculation that the old ones, who have long ached to taste the fruits of their travail at least before they die,  would sooner or later be tempted to sell their rights to the lot to many the unconscionable characters around them who, not unlike white sharks in the deep seas, are just waiting the opportune moment to seize their prey.  And these characters include the owners of the Hacienda Luisita themselves, who are expected in the interim to leave no stone upturned rather that face bankruptcy in due course.   It is of course illegal for any farmer to sell his right to the lot; but who can prevent one who may have been long  wallowing in the quicksands of hunger, having lost his gainful source of living since their fight to own the land they till began?

Even the very noble wish of former Comelec Chair and pro bono lawyer of the farmers, Christian Monsod, for President Aquino to urge the DAR to help the farmers -- indeed, he can do that by the sheer sway of his hand as easily as Someone did at the dawn of time, saying "let there be light" and there was light --  is most likely to end up in vain.  There can't be any gainsaying the fact that President Aquino has been most personally hurt by the court's final decision on the Hacianda Luisita case.  Given the President's unquestionable honesty -- that's foremost among why I voted for him -- he will never contradict in words what lies deep in his heart.  Let's then get real: why would he order the DAR to expedite the distribution of the titles? His honesty is absolute,  he will never contract what he honestly feels.   Lest he ends up, alas, a  BIG HYPOCRITE!  That, for me, is the supreme irony of our times.