Ombudsman junks Lapanday’s graft complaint vs DAR chief

The Office of the Ombudsman has dismissed for lack of merit the graft complaint filed by Agribusiness firm Lapanday Foods Corporations (LFC) against Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano for allowing farmers to take over a disputed banana plantation in Tagum city, Davao Del Norte.

In its notice sent to Lapanday, Assistant Ombudsman Edna Diño notified the firm of the dismissal of its complaint against Mariano and Agriculture Undersecretary Luis Pangulayan over their alleged graft offense and grave abuse of authority when they upheld Madaum Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Association’s (Marbai’s) petition to possess the 145-hectare San Isidro area of the 450-hectare plantation.

READ: Lapanday files graft raps vs DAR chief, Usec

The Assistant Ombudsman quoted from an evaluator’s report that the Ombudsman “finds it proper to dismiss the complaint outright for want of palpable merit.”

The Ombudsman also dismissed Lapanday’s complaint because the corporation apparently went to other courts, first at the Regional Trial Court of Davao city to have the respondents be held in indirect contempt, and another at the Court of Appeals Eighth Division for a petition for certiorari with a temporary restraining order.

Lapanday took to the appellate court to restrain the cease and desist order Mariano issued to stop the firm from evicting the farmers, and to restrain the writ of installation Mariano issued to assert the Department of Agrarian Reform’s (DAR) jurisdiction over the dispute.

READ: Agrarian reform farmers now being installed in Lapanday land 

The CA has denied the temporary restraining order and the writ of preliminary injunction, but it directed the respondents to comment on the petition for certiorari within 10 days from notice.

The Ombudsman thus deemed that the complainants have other remedies available in other fora, Diño told Lapanday.

Diño quoted the evaluator’s report as saying that the complainants assailed the legality of Mariano’s issuances and the implementation of the writ, “which the Office cannot take cognizance of since these issues should be addressed to the proper forum.”

“Clearly, complainant is presently seeking reliefs from the Regional Trial Court of Davao city through its pending Petition for Indirect Contempt and from the Court of Appeals (8th Division) in its pending Petition for Certiorari. These are adequate remedies that are available to complainant and which it is indeed currently availing of in the regular courts,” Diño said in the notice.

“Wherefore, the complaint… is dismissed outright for want of palpable merit and complainant has an adequate remedy in another forum,” Diño added. IDL

READ: DAR chief dismisses Lapanday’s graft raps as ‘harassment’