The agricultural Lapanday Foods Corporation stood firm in its decision to manage a farm claimed by the Hijo Employees Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative 1 (HEARBCO-1) pursuant to the court-brokered compromise agreement.
LFC said there was no turning back since the Writ of execution issued by Davao City Regional Trial Court Branch 14 judge Jill Rose S. Jaugan-Lo dated November 21, 2016 was final and executor.
The order directed all parties, including the breakaway group of Mely Yu, Madaum Agrarian Reform Benefeciaries Association Inc. (MARBAI), “to respect, to honor, and to comply with the Compromise Agreement between Hijo Employees Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative 1 (HEARBCO-1) and LFC.”
LFC warned that parties who will defy the order of the court shall be subject to the penalty of contempt of court.
In LFC’s previous statement, it stressed the cease and desist order issued by Department of Agrarian Reform cannot legally overturn the court’s final and executory decision.
“This lawful arrangement was confirmed by the final and executory decision in Civil Case No. 33, 536-3010 of the Davao City Regional Trial Court, Branch 14 on September 30, 2011 that approved the compromise agreement between HEARBCO-1 and the company,” LFC stated.
According to LFC, it has requested the Court of Appeals to restrain the Department of Agrarian Reform from implementing its issuance of a questionable cease-and-desist order (CDO).
Despite CA’s denial of LFC’s request, LFC stressed that it has not diminished the legal effect of the court order for LFC to continue to manage portions of HEARBCO-1 farms. The CA has yet to resolve the main petition where LFC questions the legality of the CDO issued by Mariano.
Hence, LFC asserted that DAR cannot deprive HEARBCO-1 of its ownership and use of its farm and LFC of the management thereof. LFC stated that the DAR has to get a final and executory court order reversing the final and executory decision of RTC Branch 14 Judge Jaugan-Lo upholding the compromise agreement between LFC and HEARBCO-1 before the DAR can legally take and appropriate a portion of the farm of HEARBCO-1.
