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Friday, April 28, 2006
Floirendos confident truth will come out
THE Floirendos, owner of a vast banana plantation in Davao del Norte, are confident that they would ultimately be cleared of any involvement in the death of a farmer leader in Panabo City, Monday.
The Floirendos welcomed the investigation into the killing of Enrico Cabanit inside the Panabo public with the hope that the probe would lead to finding out the truth and identify the perpetrators.
Lawyer Richard D. Uayan, Antonio Floirendo's Group of Companies' legal department chief, said in a statement that they "hope that all parties, including the victim's supposed allies, will be open to investigation as well."
Uayan did not dismiss the possibility that Cabanit's death is being used as a propaganda tool by certain sectors.
"We must remember that the cases in which Cabanit and the Floirendos had figured in the past had been resolved amicably. Therefore, he was no longer relevant to those cases and the only people benefiting from this are the ones who want to create a new issue," said Uayan.
Authorities also asked colleagues and relatives of the victim not to readily put the blame on the Floirendos.
"The investigating team is following up operations and scrutinizing details available, to unveil the motive for the killing that could help identify the perpetrators," said Police Supt. Samuel Gadingan, chief of Panabo City Police Station.
Police reports said Cabanit, 54, secretary-general of the Pambansang Ugnayan ng mga Nagsasariling Lokal na Organisasyon sa Kanayunan (Unorka) and a farmer representative of the National Antipoverty Commission, died from four gunshot wounds in the head.
The investigation is still ongoing but Unorka council members immediately related Cabanit's death to their struggle for agrarian reform.
Unorka council member Efrin Cagumbay blamed the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) for dragging its feet on the program implementation.
"If DAR implemented the program right at the start, Eric would have not been killed," Cagumbay said.
Cabanit was the chairperson of Wadecor Employees Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Association, which is demanding for the immediate acquisition by the government of 4,000 hectares of private agricultural lands owned and controlled by the Floirendo family. (BOT)
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (April 28, 2006 issue)
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