Lapanday files graft raps vs DAR chief, Usec

Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/LYN RILLON

Agribusiness firm Lapanday Foods Corporations (LFC) filed a graft complaint against Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) chief Rafael Mariano and his undersecretary for legal affairs Luis Pangulayan for “favoring” evicted farmers of a disputed banana plantation in Tagum City, Davao del Norte.

On Thursday, LFC, through representative Noel Oliver E. Punzalan, took to the Ombudsman in Quezon city to accuse the DAR officials of violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, and of grave misconduct or grave abuse of authority, for DAR orders and court interventions upholding  the Madaum Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Association’s (Marbai’s) petition to possess the 145-hectare San Isidro (Sanid) area of the 450-hectare plantation.

On the same day, DAR was already installing in the Sanid plantation the 158 Marbai farmers, who had been trying to regain control of the farm from LFC since 2015.

Mariano had issued a cease and desist order in December against Lapanday from evicting Marbai, as well as a writ of installation in April, while Pangulayan had intervened on behalf of Marbai at the Davao Regional Trial Court to assert DAR’s jurisdiction over the dispute. LFC alleges in its Ombudsman complaints these actions “emboldened” Marbai members to cause “destruction” and “violence” in the plantation.

READ: Agrarian reform farmers now being installed in Lapanday land

“The acts of respondents DAR secretary Mariano and undersecretary Pangulayan caused undue injury to LFC. LFC suffered losses due to the destruction of the facilities, and the banana fruits and plants in the Sanid area which [Marbai] members chopped. LFC was constrained to incur security and litigation expenses to defend itself from the acts of violence committed by the [Marbai] members. As of present, LFC’s losses already amount to not less than P55 million,” read LFC’s complaint-affidavit, a copy of which was obtained by the Inquirer.

Being Collective Land Ownership Award (CLOA) holders as awarded by DAR in 1996, the land is actually registered under Marbai’s mother cooperative Hijo Employees Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative-1 (Hearbco-1). LFC, meanwhile, is the exclusive buyer of all Cavendish bananas produced from Hearbco-1’s plantation, under supply agreements with Hearbco-1 tracing back to 1999.

On Sept. 9, 2011, a compromise agreement was signed by Hearbco-1 and LFC, approved and ordered executed by the Davao city Regional Trial Court (RTC) in the same month. Under the agreement, 157.5 hectares of the plantation which suffered deterioration, largely composing the Sanid area, were turned over for management of LFC for rehabilitation and operation.

Believing this latest agreement was disadvantageous to the farmers, the Marbai members officially broke away from Hearbco-1 in 2012.

LFC, in its complaint-affidavit, insisted that “LFC’s possession and management of the Sanid area is by virtue of a court-approved compromise agreement with Hearbco-1.”

“In this situation, Marbai’s petition for installation cannot be given merit because Marbai is not a recognized [agrarian reform beneficiary], and the land has already been awarded to agrarian reform beneficiaries, the Hearbco-1,” LFC said.“The majority of the Hearbco-1 members honor and respect their court-approved compromise agreement with LFC. In fact, they are satisfied with the benefits they receive under [the] contract,” the firm added.

The DAR claims, however, in a memorandum of law submitted to the Davao court, that on Feb. 20, 2014, Hearbco-1 had already filed a petition before the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council (PARC) for the revocation of the compromise agreement with LFC. In the second quarter of 2016, Hearbco-1 and Marbai also executed a “Kasabutan” or agreement wherein Hearbco-1 allowed Marbai to be reinstated in the San Isidro area.

In an interview with the Inquirer, Mariano explained that in the CLOA that Hearbco-1 holds, each individual member—including the members now in Marbai—is still named as “co-owner.”

Pangulayan had also earlier explained that in the first place, the compromise agreement was “illegal. It did not pass through approval by the Presidential Agrarian Reform Council and the DAR Adjudication Board” as required under agrarian reform laws.

But the LFC also complained that the DAR officials “clearly used their office and abused their authority to deliberately favor the [Marbai] members.”

“Mariano issued the cease and desist order with manifest partiality, evident bad faith, or gross inexcusable negligence and gave unwarranted benefit, advantage, or preference to Marbai. [Mariano] did not even bother to hear the side of the LFC before he issued the Cease and Desist Order against LFC [in December],” the LFC said in its complaint.

“Being the quasi-judicial agency tasked to ascertain the veracity of Marbai’s claim against LFC…the DAR should have maintained a position or at least an appearance of impartiality to ensure LFC that it will be given its fair and full opportunity to be heard in the case,” the LFC said.

In an interview on Friday, Pangulayan said he has yet to receive a copy of LFC’s graft complaint, but dismissed it as “pure harassment.”

“We stand on the basis of [Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program] law; Lapanday stands on basis of courts which have no jurisdiction,” Pangulayan said, in a press conference on Wednesday. For installing Marbai, “We cannot be cited in contempt because those [Davao] court orders are illegal,” the legal undersecretary said, saying they were willing to take the matter all the way up to the Supreme Court.

Noting that LFC was “hiding” behind court decisions, Pangulayan underscored that “Courts have no jurisdiction when it comes to matter of agrarian disputes. Only DAR has been given quasi-judicial and quasi-legislative powers [under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Law] and the obligation of primary adjudication of agrarian disputes,” Pangulayan said. This includes determining whether a land dispute is agrarian in nature or not, he added.

Lapanday has asked that the DAR officials be placed under preventive suspension while the investigation into their Ombudsman complaint is ongoing.