Hacienda Luisita | The Adobo Chronicles

TARLAC CITY, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles® ) – For two years, containers of supposedly recycled plastic imported from Canada by a Philippine firm have been sitting at the Port of Manila after it was discovered that the import was, in fact, toxic waste.

At last, the toxic waste found a burial place in a landfill owned by the Metro Clark Waste Management Corporation (MCWMC) located in the town of Capas in President Aquino’s home province of Tarlac.

Everything was going smoothly until Tarlac Governor Victor Yap asked MCWMC to suspend disposal of the illegally imported trash until he is presented with a certification from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) explaining the nature of the toxic waste. Yap said his demand to see the DENR certification was his response to the complaints that he and other Tarlac officials had been receiving from residents of Bamban and Capas towns. Residents there complained of stench, noise, dust and mud as trucks transported garbage, he said.

President Aquino, in a recent state visit to Canada, failed to convince the Canadian government to take back the toxic waste.

So, in an effort to save face and displaying a heroic determination to put an end to this dragged-out controversy, Aquino offered that the toxic waste be buried at Hacienda Luisita, an agricultural estate owned by his family. Hacienda Luisita is a sugar plantation located in Tarlac that is no stranger to the decades-long controversy regarding land reform.

Aquino’s announcement could be the biggest and most important legacy of his presidency.

Aquino’s sister, actress and television host Kris, was understandably upset by her brother’s decision. Still, she says she respects the decision.

Tarlac, Philippines – It usually takes decades and proven miracles for anyone to be canonized as a saint in the Catholic Church. But for the late Cory Aquino, former Philippine president, wife of murdered opposition leader Benigno Aquino, Jr., and mother of incumbent president NoyNoy Aquino, all it took was sainthood “by acclamation.”

Cory supporters and fanatics in her native Tarlac province, north of Manila, took it upon themselves to proclaim their idol as “Saint Cory of Hacienda Luisita.” Hacienda Luisita is an expansive piece of land owned by the Cojuanco and Aquino families which has been a sore thumb in the Philippines’ decades-old Agrarian Reform Program. To this day, many farmers who once tilled the soil at Hacienda Luisita have not gained ownership of their piece of land. Scores of others have actually been displaced and forced out of the land they once called home.

The powerful Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has been all but silent on Cory’s “sainthood.” Top bishops in the CBCP are known to have always aligned themselves with the Aquino family back since the regime of Ferdinand Marcos.

The Philippines has two saints canonized in Rome: Lorenzo Ruiz and Pedro Calungsod. Aquino is the first known saint to be canonized outside The Vatican.

In a related development, the Congress of the Philippines has passed a bill to rename the International Airport in the former U.S. airbase in Clark, province of Pampanga, as “Cory Aquino International Airport.

Opponents of the bill objected, saying that the government cannot name an airport after a saint because the Philippine Constitution provides for the separation of church and state.