Life hard in Datu Paglas after plantation’s closure

ABANDONED This banana plantation established by La Frutera Inc. in Pandag town, Maguindanao province, has been left to the mercy of nature after the company stopped operations. —BONG S. SARMIENTO

DATU PAGLAS, Maguindanao, Philippines — At least 2,000 workers here lost their jobs when a banana plantation ceased operations almost two years ago, prompting local officials to warn that Islamic State (IS)-linked militants could exploit the situation as fertile ground for recruitment.

This town hogged the limelight on May 8 when about 100 heavily armed men belonging to the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) occupied the public market, causing residents to flee and authorities to close the national highway.

Vice Mayor Mohammad Paglas Sr. said La Frutera Inc., the single largest investor in town, stopped operations about two years ago after failing to access a bank loan to further finance its operations.

“The BIFF has been taking advantage of the hopelessness, disgruntlement and poverty of those who lost their jobs and their family members. What’s worrisome is that they are being recruited to the wrong tenets of Islam,” Paglas, also chair of Paglas Corp., the local partner of La Frutera, told the Inquirer.

Paglas, who served three terms as mayor of this town, said potential recruits had been enticed to join the BIFF with “a promise of a place in paradise if they kill in the name of religion.”

Days before the May 8 incident, the military had been pursuing the BIFF in the “SPMS box,” the area composed of the contiguous towns of Shariff Aguak, Pagatin (Datu Saudi Ampatuan town), Mamasapano and Shariff Saydona.

There was no shootout between the BIFF and the military at the public market, but later, clashes happened in a farming village about 3 kilometers away, resulting in the death of four militants, their bodies recovered during a military clearing operation.

Young fighters

Vendor Cesar Sailila told the Inquirer that some of the BIFF rebels who occupied the public market for about an hour on May 8 were minors.

“I was face-to-face with three young BIFF fighters, one was armed with an M-14 rifle while the two others were carrying Armalite rifles. One was even as tall as his Armalite,” said Sailila, who just opened the family’s general merchandise store at the market on the day that the armed men came.

Vice Mayor Paglas feared that with La Frutera’s closure and the displacement of thousands of workers, Datu Paglas town could relapse to its bloody past if residents would be unemployed for long.

In neighboring Buluan town, the capital of Maguindanao, La Frutera’s main office in Barangay Digal posted a huge tarpaulin at the gate, which read, “Temporary Closed.”

‘Arms to farms’

Set up in 1997, the company was once a model of the “arms to farms” success story, just a year after the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) forged a final peace agreement with the government.

The 1,200-hectare banana plantation spanning the towns of Datu Paglas, Buluan, Pandag and Mangudadatu had been developed for the production of Cavendish bananas for export to other Asian and Middle Eastern markets, providing livelihood to at least 2,000 people. Among these workers are members of the MNLF and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)—groups that signed a peace deal with the government in 1996 and 2014, respectively.

OUT OF BUSINESS A tarpaulin hung at the gate of the headquarters of La Frutera Inc. in Buluan, Maguindanao, announces the temporary closure of the banana producer and exporter. —BONG S. SARMIENTO

Before La Frutera’s banana plantations mushroomed in Datu Paglas and neighboring towns, travelers used to dread passing through the highway due to the then raging Moro rebellion, ambushes and broad daylight robberies.

Former Datu Paglas Mayor Ibrahim “Toto” Paglas III, who died in 2008 due to illness, paved the way for La Frutera to put up a banana plantation here.Two years after La Frutera stopped operations, grasses have grown tall in between rows of plants in the plantation.

Restoring jobs

Paglas Corp., which used to provide support services to La Frutera, has been seeking a loan from the state-owned Development Bank of the Philippines in an effort to save the local banana industry, Paglas said.

“We are praying for its approval to jumpstart the local banana industry again. We need to provide jobs to our people,” he said.

“If they are not productive and don’t have enough money to feed their families and send their children to school in the long term, I am afraid they will easily fall prey to IS recruitment,” he added.

He said Paglas Corp., which partnered with La Frutera for 20 years, would be capable of managing the banana plantation.

Displaced workers are also keeping their fingers crossed.

“The banana industry helped a lot of families get out of poverty,” said Kagui Ankad Saguia, a former MILF fighter who worked as a security personnel since the early years of La Frutera.“Many of us were able to build better houses and send our children to school. We feel bad that the company ceased operations. Many MILF members returned to the fold of the law because of the livelihood provided by the banana industry,” he told the Inquirer in a separate interview.

Saguia said workers like him were shocked when the company abruptly stopped operations, noting that he still had some collectibles from his former employer.

“I hope the banana industry will be revived for the sake of peace and welfare of our people,” he said.