FOR lack of merit, the Office of the Ombudsman has junked the graft complaint against Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano filed by Lapanday Foods Corp. for the installation of 159 farmers at its 145-hectare banana plantation in Tagum City, Davao del Norte.
Assistant Ombudsman Edna Diño said Mariano and Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Luis Pangulayan did not commit graft and grave abuse of authority when on May 18, they entered Lapanday's premises and installed the farmers belonging to the Madaum Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Inc., who were forcibly evicted by Lapanday at the 145-hectare San Isidro area of the 450-hectare plantation.
The Ombudsman “finds it proper to dismiss the complaint outright for want of palpable merit,” Diño said.
The complaint was also dismissed for forum shopping, the Ombudsman said, saying that Lapanday filed a case of indirect contempt with a lower court in Davao City, and a petition for certiorari with a temporary restraining order with the Court of Appeals Eighth Division.
“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,” the Ombudsman said.
“Wherefore, the complaint… is dismissed outright for want of palpable merit and complainant has an adequate remedy in another forum.”
Last April 18 and April 21, Mariano attempted to install the 159 farmers, but Lapanday, “with help of their armed goons,” prevented the installation.