AGRARIAN Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano warned on Thursday the Lapanday Foods Corp. of contempt for what he called violation of the agrarian reform laws.
He vowed no one could prevent the Department of Agrarian Reform from installing the farmers to their lands.
He said he would personally lead the return of the farmers.
“Rest assured that Dar will stand by its principle. We will protect [farmers] as long as there is a strong and solid basis to do so,” he added.
Last Dec. 16, amid the wave of attacks on the farmers’ encampment by alleged personnel of Lapanday, DAR issued a cease-and-desist order prohibiting the agribusiness firm from forcibly evicting members of the Madaum Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Association Inc. from the banana plantation.
The 145-hectare land that was previously awarded under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program in 1996 was successfully turned over by Dar to the Marbai farmers last Dec. 19.
However, the farmers were reportedly dispossessed of their farms 12 days after when around 300 security guards forced them out of the land.
“Since there was a very clear violation of the cease-and-desist order, Dar will anchor its action on the formal complaint of contempt to be filed by Marbai against Lapanday and its representatives,” Mariano said.
The agrarian reform chief visited the farmers and assured them of their peaceful return to their landholdings.
A series of assaults to the farmers in December, however, prompted Dar to probe and demand from its regional and provincial units the appropriate measures.
Lapanday Foods Corp. earlier applied for a temporary restraining order and a writ of preliminary execution order before the Court of Appeals to challenge Dar’s cease-and-desist order.
On Jan. 6, the court denied the application.
All 159 Marbai farmers have been staging a camp-out protest in front of the banana plantation since Dec. 31.
They joined almost 5,000 farmers from the Southern Mindanao region for the four-day protest “Kampuhan sa mga Mag-uuma” in Davao City.
