#Bulatlat20 | Covering Hacienda Luisita
Screenshot of one of the first Bulatlat stories about the struggle of Hacienda Luisita farmworkers.
Bulatlat‘s coverage of Hacienda Luisita has since been the benchmark of other agrarian reform stories it has covered through the years, its lessons and victories often told to the next generation of journalists to serve as a reminder that peasant stories also deserve the spotlight.
By DABET CASTAÑEDA-PANELO
I came to know about the story of the sugarcane workers in Hacienda Luisita, a sprawling 6,453-hectare sugar plantation in Tarlac operated by the Cojuangco political clan, when news came out that they were getting a minimum salary of nine pesos and fifty centavos a week. I could not wrap my head around the fact that families can actually survive with only as much.