THE Lapanday Foods Corporation (LFC) claimed they have already lost $120,000 as protesting farmers have already damaged 15 hectares of bananas in the plantation located in Madaum, Tagum City.
Lawyer Leilani Espejo, legal counsel of LFC said in a media briefing Friday at Apo View Hotel, Davao City, that since Friday around 700 people identified as members of Madaum Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Association Incorporated (Marbai) and other militant groups have remained in the area and as of Wednesday evening, they have already cut 2,000 fully grown standing crops.
"It is an illegal act, those standing crops are not owned by Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs)," Espejo said.
Espejo added the standing crops are under the maintenance of the company and chopping those violate the compromise agreement they had with the Hijo Employees Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative (Hearbco-1).
A compromise agreement was signed between Hearbco-1 and LFC on September 9, 2011, granting LFC the right to manage certain portions of Hearbco-1's banana plantation.
The current members of Marbai, who were former members of Hearbco-1, opposed the said compromise agreement and they were also ousted from the cooperative.
Espejo said the company sought police assistance for the cutting of banana trees but the officials hesitated to do so as they are threatened not to go to the area.
Last December 8, around 20 armed men who reportedly disarmed their security personnel, forcibly entered the Hearbco-1 compound.
LFC's packing house were arrested by the Tagum City Police but they were released Friday evening even before the company was able to file for inquest proceedings before the City Prosecutor's Office.
"Before our lawyers can file the case, they were conveniently released," said Hernani Geronimo, Head of Strategic Human Resource and Solutions Services of LFC.
Espejo denied the company buys bananas at a very low price, a thing which the Marbai cooperative is protesting about.
Geronimo also said the company gives 40 percent gross proceeds to the farmers and they were happy and satisfied, and denied that they have been stationing guards in the 150-hectare property.
"It will be too costly for us to post guards in a 150-hectare property," he said.
The company earlier denied that the shooting of 13 farmers was done by their security guards, saying the security guards they hired were highly regulated by the Philippine National Police itself with the qualifications required by law.
Hernani said that as the trees were destroyed, the groups are “also killing the very cooperative,” adding that the groups are resorting to “mutual destruction.”
Espejo said that they find the issue very difficult to resolve.
Tagum City Mayor Allan Rellon has set a meeting with Lapanday and Marbai last December 14, but not one of the representatives of the Marbai group appeared.
Another discussion is set on December 19.
Marbai consists of one-third of Hearbco-1, the cooperative which the Lapanday engages.
LFC finance officer Lito Dagatan said that Marbai has to solve the issue with Hearbco-1 and recognize the contracts they have signed with the company.
"[This issue can be solved once they will be merged as a group. This is a faction issue, of two coops, not Marbai versus Lapanday," Dagatan said.
He also said that he is hopeful the Department of Agrarian Reform will help the groups merge together and not further put disorder among the factions.
Marbai already filed and won a case against Hearbco-1 for their reinstatement in the cooperative before the Provincial Agrarian Reform Adjudicator (Parad) last December 15, 2015.
LFC, however, did not honor the Parad decision for the reason that the reinstatement of Marbai would adversely affect LFC's rights under the compromise agreement and LFC is not bound by the Parad decision as it was not even the party of the case.
In a separate statement from the Marbai and Unyon sa mga Mag-uumang Nagtikad para sa Tinuod na Repormang Agraryo sent to VoxPop Davao Friday, said that last December 9, the ARBs and their families with the support of peasant associations, finally claimed the 145 hectares land claimed by LFC.
"This land rights victory represents the struggle for genuine agrarian reform which has endured with many hardships and landlord harassments. Even with difficulties the ARBs and their families continued to resist because the land belongs to us. This triumph shows that we have no other way to win our rights to land but by militant mass action and resistance," it read.
The group also alleged that it was the LFC, security agency and armed goons who ran amok against the struggling peasant and farm workers, and shot 10 of them.
"They harassed and shot us wherein 10 farmers from our ranks have become victims but we are undaunted and fought back instead by cutting those bloody bananas which symbolizes the cutting of exploitative and oppressive relations with Lapanday and ending its land grabbing through the Agribusiness Ventures Agreement schemes (AVAs)," the statement read.
The group also challenged the Duterte administration to address the abuse of the oligarchs in taking action to the demand of farmer beneficiaries which includes prosecution of suspects of the shooting incidents and harassments and to compel Lapanday for indemnification of victims of shooting and revocation of onerous, exploitative and oppressive AVAs with LFC must be revoked.