All-organic banana farm launched in Maguindanao massacre site

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Local folks on Monday witnessed the launching of Asia's first ever 1,500-hectare "all-organic" Cavendish banana farm near the site of the infamous “Maguindanao Massacre.”

The farm is being developed jointly by a group of Muslim religious leaders, local entrepreneurs and two multinational benefactors, the Univex and the Delinanas, a subsidiary of the international Del Monte fruit firm.

The entity to run the farm in Barangay Masalay in Ampatuan town, the Al-Mujahidun Agro Resources and Development, Inc. (AMARDI), will also put up an Islamic school, a hospital, and a “halal” food processing plant in the area to help address poverty and underdevelopment besetting the local communities.

The term halal is an Arabic description for food Muslims can eat, free from anything "haram" (forbidden) such as pork, alcohol and toxic ingredients.

An emotional Maguindanao Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu told reporters the foreign capitalists of the “all organic” banana farm were ushered in by their own curiosity on how they can help change the image of Ampatuan municipality, tarnished by the gruesome politically motivated massacre on  Nov. 23, 2009 of 58 people, among them his wife, Jenalyn.

The victims were in a convoy, on their way to Shariff Aguak town, seat of the provincial government, to submit the certificate of candidacy for provincial governor of Mangudadatu, then vice-mayor of Buluan town in the second district of the province.

They were flagged down by armed partisans, allegedly led by leaders of the Ampatuan clan, herded into a hill in the west of Barangay Masalay, and, there, killed with assault rifles and machineguns one after another.

Reports said the Ampatuans had wanted their favored bet for governor, now detained Andal Ampatuan, Jr., then mayor of Datu Unsay town, to run for the highest elective post in the province virtually unopposed.

“This agricultural venture was paid with blood of the massacre victims, my spouse included,” Mangudadatu said.

Also present in the on-field launching rite was Costa Rican entrepreneur-technocrat, Gonzalo Ordeñana, who is helping put up the banana farm, and his counterparts in the AMARDI, cleric Abdulwahid Sumauang, and Akmad Bullecer.

The farm will initially employ 2,000 Moro workers to propagate Cavendish bananas on contiguous rented lands owned by local residents.

The symbolic start of the plantation’s operation was jointly officiated by Mangudadatu, local officials led Mayor Rasul Sangki, Brig. Gen. Edmundo Pangilinan of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, and Agriculture Secretary Makmod Mending, Jr. of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Mending said the ARMM government is thankful to Mangudadatu for convincing foreign investors to help fund the project.

“We are encouraging free enterprise here. The ARMM just helped in the legalization of their entry to Maguindanao and provided them with technical support needed to hasten the realization of their dream to have this plantation in this once hostile area,” Mending said.

The figurehead of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, had earlier expressed support to AMARDI’s  project in Barangay Masalay, home to hundreds of MILF guerillas.

Sumauang said they will use only organic agricultural farm inputs to showcase the viability of environment-friendly agriculture, which is essential in the protection of the environment.

“This is certainly the first ever organic banana farm in Asia,” Sumauang said.

Pangilinan, who was deputy commander for the southern peace process of the Western Mindanao Command in Zamboanga City prior to his assumption as 6th ID commander last May 2014, said the banana farm will improve the security situation in Barangay Masalay and surrounding areas.

The 6th ID has jurisdiction over Central Mindanao's adjoining Maguindanao, North Cotabato, and Sultan Kudarat towns.

Pangilinan said providing Moro rebels with employment will bolster the efforts of the government and the MILF to foster normalcy in the province.