THE Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA) calls protesting farmers to revisit the Philippine Cooperative Code of 2008 and the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988 following the worsening conflict arising between the agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARB) and the Lapanday Foods Corporation (LFC) in Madaum, Tagum City in Davao del Norte.
PBGEA executive director Stephen Anting said yesterday in a press conference at the Apo View Hotel said the problem is rooted in the internal conflict within the Hijo Employees Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative (Hearbco-1), a cooperative LFC has a contract with.
The conflict resulted to a $120,000 cost of damage as of December 15 wherein 15 hectares of bananas were purposely destroyed.
“In every coop, there is an annual election of officers and board of directors, maybe it is time to review this as this does not promote continuity, it can potentially cause conflict,” he said.
In 2010, LFC had a contractual dispute with Hearbco-1 as the then newly elected board of directors led by Mely Yu refused to honor the existing contracts with LFC.
The opposition group is now identified as Madaum Agrariam Reform Beneficiaries Incorporated (Marbai).
“I am not saying that our Agrarian Reform is not good, we would just like to revisit how it was implemented,” Antig said. He underscored that on the issue, the government should honor and respect contracts. They also hope both concerned parties will meet halfway and talk peacefully by identifying a mediator accepted by all parties.
“The Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (DCCCII) has a pool of mediators who can be tapped. Let us try to settle the issue peacefully,” he added. Lailani Espejo, legal counsel of LFC, said that in cooperatives the rule of majority shall prevail.
“We cannot deal with them one by one. We should strengthen the power of coop and let the rule of majority thrive. What is happening, some of the members assert their opinions and sentiments causing conflict,” she said.
A total of 13 farmers were allegedly shot by LFC security guards last Monday and Wednesday. The farmers from Marbai have been staying in the area for a month now after a rally that they conducted last November 16 in front of the Lapanday administration building.
Last Monday, December 12, Marbai farmers destroyed 15 hectares of banana devoted farm in its assertion to fight their rights in the land.
Hernani Geronimo, LFC head of human resource and admin said that the action is “a kind of sabotage that this group inflicts yet they claim they are harvesting what they claim was their entitlements. The scenario does not support this assertion.”
“While they claim to be dispossessed, they themselves inflict the worst form of dispossession among the members of Hearbco-1 in particular in the belief that by destroying the very livelihood of the members and wasting the fruits on their land, they will change the legal and factual truth that Hearbco-1 have existing contracts and that the cooperative shall continue to honor their contractual obligations,” Geronimo added.