Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano (left) comes back to Tagum City on Friday, April 21, 2017 to supervise the scheduled installation of agrarian reform beneficiaries in Barangay San Isidro. However, the installation did not push through after the guards inside the plantation refused to receive DAR’s Writ of Installation. (Zea Io Ming C. Capistrano/davaotoday.com)
TAGUM CITY, Philippines — The Lapanday Foods Corporation said they will oppose the Writ of Installation issued by the Department of Agrarian Reform favoring the farmers as this “defies the final Court order” which earlier ruled in its favor.
In a statement, Lapanday said the 145-hectares of land in the San Isidro farm area was already awarded to agrarian reform beneficiaries under the Hijo Employees Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative – 1 (Hearbco-1) which has an “existing and valid contract with LFC to manage the portions of the plantation.”
This as Madaum Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Association Inc. (Marbai) farmers and 2,000 supporters held a protest rally in front of the Davao del Norte Police Provincial Office to condemn the police inaction on their case.
DAR Secretary Rafael Mariano issued the Writ of Installation on April 11 to install the 159 Marbai farmer beneficiaries in the San Isidro farm area. However, Lapanday argues that the subject area “had already been awarded to the ARBs who belonged to HEARBCO-1.”
“These ARBs were in fact already properly and duly installed by the DAR,” LFC said.
It added that Marbai’s claims over the area “cannot overturn the installation of HEARBCO-1 members on their land.”
LFC further added that it “cannot be dispossessed of the land and its existing management contract over the area since the company’s possession and management of the farms owned by HEARBCO-1 is by virtue of a final and executory order issued by the Davao City Regional Trial Court Branch 14 in Civil Case No, 33, 536-2010, that approved the Compromise Agreement between LFC and HEARBCO-1.”
The Hearbco-1 is the mother cooperative from which the members of the MARBAI broke away from in 2010 when they decided to end ties with Lapanday.
LFC said the RTC Branch 14’s Writ of Execution on December 9, 2015 and another Writ of Execution on November 21, 2016 recognized its “right to manage and possess the Sanid (San Isidro) area.”
The DAR has filed Urgent Motions to Quash the Alias Writ of Execution and for the Immediate Referral to the DAR stating that the lower court has no business to determine whether there is an agrarian dispute.
DAR said “the Performance of the Banana Sales and Marketing Agreement (BSMA) results to the eviction of the Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries from the San Isidro farm area. The writ conflicts with the cease and desist order and the Office of the Provincial Adjudicator (PARAD) action. There lies the agrarian dispute.”
It said the court has the duty to refer the matter to DAR.
However, in a copy of the Order of the RTC Branch 14 issued on April 18 by Presiding Judge Jill Rose Jaugan-Lo, it said the judgment on the Compromise Agreement between Hearbco-1 and LFC that was sought to be enforced by the alias writ of execution “has long become final and executory.”
A portion of the court’s order which denies DAR’s Urgent Motions to Quash Alias Writ and Immediate Referral to the DAR reads: “An order approving a compromise agreement, which right then and there writes finish to the controversy, is computed not from entry but from rendition. The judgment does not have to be entered as it is not appealable, it was held that as a matter of law, a judgment on compromise becomes final and immediately executory upon approval thereof by the proper court and is deemed learned by the parties on the very day it was rendered since they were themselves concerned in its immediate implementation.”
The court said this is the second writ of execution that is ordered. “Failure of the petitioners in not promptly filing a motion to annul the prior writ of execution issued by the court is fatal to their cause,” it said.
The RTC Branch 14 said DAR “has no business to interfere in the instant case” and said DAR’s appearance is “obviously late and beyond the period prescribed by the rules.”
The installation of the members of MARBAI was scheduled on April 18. However, the Philippine National Police Regional Office who was designated by DAR to provide police assistance in the execution of the Writ of Installation refused to follow the order as they first sought clarification from the RTC Branch 14 given the legal issues surrounding the case.
The police still did not give assistance on Friday, referring to the Order issued by RTC Branch 14, but the PNP’s Supervisory Office for Security and Investigation Agencies conducted an outpost checking and clearing inside the farm area to validate the guards inside the farm whether they are enlisted under an accredited agency.
The installation was cancelled again after the guards inside the plantation refused to accept the Writ of Installation handed by the Sheriff.(davaotoday.com)
