By Shayne Elizabeth T. Flores

In time for their upcoming 100-year anniversary, Del Monte’s legacy as one of the leading food corporations in the country resurfaced and gained traction online. Vast fields, lush fruits, farmers with high morale—putting all of these together, the company presents an ideal landscape of an agricultural business free from corporate greed. Despite this, agrarian advocates deem Del Monte’s commitment to sustainable farming questionable given their history of complicity in exploitation. 

Founded in Bukidnon in 1926, Del Monte is widely known for offering Filipino household staples such as sauces, juices, condiments, etc.

Recently featured on journalist Karen Davila’s YouTube channel, the corporation garnered attention and praise for its ‘farm heaven,’ where free housing, electricity, education, and healthcare are provided to its farmers and their families. 

As Del Monte celebrates its centennial year this coming 2026, the National Network of Agrarian Reform Advocates Youth backtracked on the corporation's legacy in a statement last December 4, highlighting the decades of contractualization, wage depression, land-grabbing, and displacement buried beneath Del Monte’s now flourishing soil.

While the substantial benefits Del Monte provides to its farmers are worth acknowledging, critics raise how this can be deemed as mere compromise to compensate for the deeper inequalities the corporation has enabled and benefitted from over the years.

Displacement of farmers, indigenous communities

Del Monte’s Bukidnon plantation was once home to farmers and indigenous communities until they were compelled to lease their land to the corporation.  

In a 1982 report by international and independent publication New Internationalist, it was detailed how farmers were threatened with having their land rights cut off amid the expansion of Del Monte’s pineapple operations in Bukidnon.

They were also held back by bureaucratic procedures from claiming their land titles through the Bureau of Lands. The farmers were reportedly told to wait or were outright rejected due to ‘lack of witnesses and proper forms.’

As such, they could only receive the titles if they promised to lease to Del Monte.

The report further added how this extended to the expansion of Del Monte’s banana plantations in Davao del Norte in 1979, which displaced 200 families.

As cited in Explained PH’s article, some farmers earned as little as P5,150 per hectare yearly in the early 2000s, with half of the amount allocated to amortization, leaving only ₱429 of real income per month.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) 2023 data shows that agricultural workers earn an average daily wage of P322.23, which is less than the P1,225 living wage for a family of five.

This goes to show the reality behind Del Monte farmers’ condition, wherein despite being provided of substantial aid, they still do not own the land they till nor gain direct income from it.

According to the PSA, only 21.8 percent of Filipino farmers secured ownership or rights over their agricultural land in 2022.

Complicity in violence against indigenous communities

In 2019, international watchdog Global Witness tagged Del Monte’s connection with the violent attacks against indigenous activists. The investigation revealed Del Monte’s affiliation with Quezon, Bukidnon Mayor Pablo Lorenzo III, who was accused of ordering attacks on protesters and threatening indigenous activist Renato Anglao prior to his murder.

Anglao was the secretary-general of Tribal Indigenous Oppressed Group Association (TINDOGA). He was riding his motorcycle with his wife and child when they were ambushed by three unidentified men.

After being shot at close range in the head and chest, Anglao was pronounced dead on the spot, while his wife and child were uninjured.

Prior to his death, Anglao reportedly led indigenous families in defending 300 hectares of their ancestral land in Quezon town from landgrabbing attempts.

TINDOGA also protested against Mayor Lorenzo, condemning his attempt to seize and convert their land into commercial farming. This allegedly led to Lorenzo threatening Anglao before his death.

While not directly involved in the killing, Global Witness stated that Del Monte “effectively failed to do adequate due diligence before and during entering into contracts” with Lorenzo until March 2019.

Per the investigation, Del Monte had a business agreement with Lorenzo’s Montalvan Ranch to grow pineapples for them. Lorenzo also served as Del Monte's consultant, even renewing contracts despite evidence of violence associated with his ranches.

Del Monte responded that they ended the growership agreement with Lorenzo when they discovered that he was a public official. Moreover, they said that they were unaware of Lorenzo’s alleged violence. 

Nonetheless, Global Witness asserted that Del Monte’s complicity raised questions about their commitment as a company to respect the rights of indigenous communities.

Though they have now severed ties with Lorenzo, this still puts into question Del Monte’s portrayed commitment to social responsibility in terms of uplifting local communities when they were once complicit in the violence surrounding their business operations and partners.

Moreover, this proves how the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program and Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act remain short in fulfilling their role in protecting farmers and indigenous communities.

Despite these laws’ essence to bolster land rights, many indigenous peoples have yet to receive their Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title, while farmers continue to plead for genuine land reform.

In a country where farmers often endure poor conditions to the point of normalization, it is no surprise Del Monte’s benevolence to its workers was spotlighted as ‘ideal.’ However, there is also no denying the reality that this merely serves as a band-aid solution to the systemic oppression farmers face. While free housing and education will truly help workers cope with economic struggles, true progress will only be achieved once farmers possess their own land and are self-sufficient, rather than solely dependent on corporations.

(Photo courtesy of Del Monte Philippines)