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Kokua Hawaii, a local action group supporting Kalama Valley pig farmer George Santos, and Bishop Estate which owns the valley, are squaring off for a fight for the property tomorrow morning.
Yesterday police served Santos with a summary possession notice telling him and his supporters to leave by 6:30 a.m. tomorrow, or face arrest.
Santos countered by saying he wasn’t going, and if they force him off the land he would take his 200 pigs to Washington Place, the Governor’s mansion.
After serving the final eviction notice, police and Hayes Security Guards attempted to seal off the valley with two road blocks.
But Kokua Hawaii members, many of whom spent the last week camping near Santos’ home, came into the valley carrying supplies over trails and dirt roads. …
Santos and his pigs have been in the valley for three years, and Kokua Hawaii has adopted his fight as a symbolic gesture of resistance against Hawaiian land developers.
Bishop Estate is preparing the land for large middle and upper class housing tracts with the cooperation of Hawaii Kai Corp.
Kokua Hawaii spokesmen maintain that Bishop Estate is creating "Mainland haole ghettos" by building expensive homes in the valley.
"The best thing to happen would be for Bishop Estate to see the people’s side … let the local people build their own homes, in their own style," Linton Park, Kokua Hawaii spokesman, said. …
Santos said Bill Cook, the Governor’s special assistant for housing, had promised him land on Oahu for his pigs, but Santos says he won’t move until his neighbors are also given land. … Santos said there are six other families in the valley, including one other pig farmer.
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Every Sunday, “Back in the Day” looks at an article that ran on this date in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The items are verbatim, so don’t blame us today for yesteryear’s bad grammar.
