Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael “Ka Paeng” Mariano has ordered the Regional Office of the Department of Agrarian Reform, Region XI, and the Provincial Agrarian Reform Office of Davao Del Norte to probe the reported gunfire attack by security guards of the Lapanday Foods Corporation at the farmers’ encampment in Brgy. Madaum, Tagum City.
Seven members of Madaum Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries, Inc., (MARBAI) were wounded on Monday morning after armed men identified as security personnel of banana plantation Lapanday Food Corporation fired their weapons at the group of farmers who were camping in the area since Friday last week to assert ownership of the lands inside the said plantation.
Wounded farmers were identified as Jose Balucos, 42, Emanuel Buladaco, 46, Talban Miparanun, 16, and some members of Panalipdan Youth and Hugpong sa Mag-uuma sa Pantukan, namely: Belardo Francisco, Jojo Gomez, and two others named as Rico and Bobong.
MARBAI and the other group called Unyon Farmers are asserting their rights as government-recognized beneficiaries and owners of the 145-hectare agricultural land being claimed by Lapanday for the last six years.
Lapanday already denied it ordered the attack against the farmers.
In a statement, the company said it sought police assistance to investigate the presence of armed men who were seen within the areas of Hijo Employees Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative 1 or HEARBCO1.
Lapanday said the place where HEARBCO1 and MARBAI farmers stayed were in the same location.
In a statement on Monday, Secretary Mariano also instructed the local DAR officials to coordinate with the Philippine National Police of Davao del Norte for the possible filing of cases against the suspects of the shooting incident.
“Almost 2,000 farmworkers and members of peasant organizations have joined the farmers’ camp in Brgy. Madaum to support the fight of the MARBAI farmers,” the DAR statement added.
The agency said that MARBAI members are farmer beneficiaries who were given Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOAs) in 1996 under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). Each of the 159 farmers owns a 0.79-hectare piece of the 145-hectare banana plantation.
“According to Mely Yu, President of MARBAI, they were forced to enter a Banana Sales and Marketing Agreement with the LFC who buys their products for export. They were tricked into selling high-grade bananas which were poorly classified for a lower price, thus, resulting to a measly Php 2,000.00 monthly income, she added. Because of the agreement, the farmer beneficiaries became indebted to LFC for more or less a billion pesos (P1,000,000,000.00).”
The DAR has been meeting with the farmers for their installation to the 145 hectares as ordered by Provincial Agrarian Reform Adjudicator (PARAD) Jose Nilo Tillano in his December 15, 2015 decision, which has long been final and executory.
DAR also pointed out that in October of this year, when the farmer-beneficiaries were already in a camp-out in front of the gate of LFC, Secretary Mariano himself visited the farmers and had a dialogue with them assuring them that the agency is studying the matter carefully and wanted to install them peacefully into their landholding without compromising their safety and security.
