Lapanday accuses DAR chief, undersecretary of graft

BANANA exporter Lapanday Foods Corp. has filed a graft complaint at the Office of the Ombudsman against Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano and Undersecretary Luis Pañgulayan.

In the complaint filed on May 18, Lapanday alleged that Mariano committed graft when he issued a cease-and-desist order against the company, which had blocked members of the Madaum Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Association, Inc. (Marbai) from a plantation in Tagum, Davao del Norte that it said belongs to a different group, the Hijo Employees Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Cooperative-1 or Hearbco-1.