7 wounded as guards shoot farmers in banana plantation

DAVAO CITY—Farmworker Jojo Gomez is fighting for his life after security guards of a banana plantation shot a group of farmers who was on its way to harvest in Tagum City on Monday morning.

Out of the group of 50 farmers, seven, including Gomez, were wounded and taken to a local hospital.

Monico Dayahan of the Madaum Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Association Inc. (Marbai) said his group was walking when a team of 10 security guards, allegedly from Lapanday Foods Corp., approached and fired without any warning.

“We never expected it. We were just on our way to harvest bananas when they shot us,” Dayahan said.

The situation in the area remained volatile, reports said.

Marbai and Lapanday are embroiled in a 145-hectare land dispute case after the agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in the area accused the company of landgrabbing.

“The ARBs are being dispossessed of supposedly government-awarded land and forced to live in deplorable hunger and poverty,” Marbai said in a statement.

Farmers have been manning a barricade in the area since last week after their demands remained unresolved for several years.

But Lapanday, in a statement sent to the Inquirer, said the company was not involved in the attack.

“Lapanday Foods Corp. denies any involvement in the reported shooting of alleged agrarian reform beneficiaries in Barangay Madaum, Tagum City this morning,” the company said.

Lapanday said it has been requesting police assistance since last week to “investigate the presence of armed men who were seen within the areas under Hijo Employees Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative 1 (HEARBCO-1).”

The company said the conflict involved only Marbai and the company cooperative, HEARBCO-1.

Lapanday said one of the leaders of Marbai was ejected from HEARBCO-1 in 2011 and is now “engaging armed men to inflict violence and disrupt operations in the farm.”

“This internal conflict among the HEARBCO-1 and this breakaway group may be the reason for this latest incident,” Lapanday said.

But Antonio Tuyak, one of the farmer leaders, said Lapanday’s claim was “preposterous.”

“The men who shot us were wearing security guard uniforms and were armed with shotguns. Now who has the capacity to hire them? Who were attacked?” Tuyak said.

The contested area was formerly owned by Hijo Plantation Inc. and was awarded to three groups of ARBs and employees in the 1990s.

In 1999, HEARBCO-1 entered into growership contract agreement with Hijo Plantation Inc., now Lapanday Foods Corp., and Global Fruits Corp.

In December 2015, Provincial Agrarian Reform Adjudicator Jose Nilo Tillano ordered the reinstatement of Marbai farmworkers but they never got their lands back.

Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate said he would seek a congressional investigation into incident. —WITH A REPORT FROM FRINSTON LIM