Did Tony Meloto take over Gawad Kalinga’s Enchanted Farm?

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A two-hour drive from northern Metro Manila brings us to a place called Encanto, in the town of Angat in Bulacan. 

Encanto is a quiet village of 5,000 people, lined with trees and surrounded by grasslands. Its name means “charm” in Spanish, while in Filipino, the word (“engkanto”) refers to a mythical creature that can bring good or evil.

Encanto, at first glance, looks like any other countryside village. But its magic lies in a 34-hectare property which, for nearly 15 years, has been touted as “a beacon of hope for rural communities.”

Founded by Gawad Kalinga (GK) founder Antonio “Tony” Meloto in 2011, the GK Enchanted Farm was a land of promise — envisioned as a farm, village, and university rolled into one, helping create jobs for the poor using the bounty of nature.

No less than then-president Benigno Aquino III inaugurated the GK Center for Social Innovation at the Enchanted Farm on July 24, 2011, braving Tropical Storm Falcon (Meari) as he joined Meloto and other top officials of GK. 

“Enchanted Farm is an incubator for social business to really create wealth that will benefit those at the bottom of the pyramid,” Meloto once said.

Enchanted Farm gave birth to many dreams — including those of former beneficiaries Paul and Matthew (not their real names). Theirs, however, turned into a nightmare, after Meloto allegedly subjected the two male students to sexual abuse inside the Enchanted Farm itself. 

Meloto has denied their accusations as “baseless, false, malicious, and improperly filed.”

Their complaints are now pending at the Department of Justice (DOJ), which is expected to soon decide whether or not to file a case in court.

GK said in a statement that Meloto had resigned as chairman of GK, Seed Philippines, and Enchanted Farm on October 26, 2017, after the organization’s board of trustees internally investigated the complaints against him.

The expectation was that Meloto, 75, no longer had official ties with the farm in Barangay Encanto. 

This was, in fact, the case for at least around eight years, as the Enchanted Farm — and GK itself — continued functioning without the founder at the helm. 

But as a sex abuse case hounds Meloto, a different kind of enchantment is taking place in Barangay Encanto. 

Rappler learned from at least three informed sources that Meloto has quietly returned to the Enchanted Farm, while GK has vacated the property and, like a persona non grata, is barred from returning. 

We recently visited the farm and confirmed with at least two residents that Meloto has returned — and GK is gone. 

MELOTO’S BRAINCHILD. The Gawad Kalinga Enchanted Farm in Angat, Bulacan, was founded as a ‘home of nation builders.’ Photo by Paterno Esmaquel II/Rappler

On its Facebook page, the GK Enchanted Farm’s last public post was dated April 17, announcing its Holy Week break. No statement followed, not even one that said it had left the farm.

‘Mahal namin si Tatay TM’

Farm residents sympathetic to Meloto now consider GK disgraced. A number of them are prepared to use physical force if they see GK staff on their farm again, one informant said.

The farm is said to be owned and “donated” to GK by Jun Valbuena, a longtime GK supporter who is said to be supportive of Meloto. We tried to reach Valbuena for this story via his Messenger account, but have not received a response as of posting time. 

Recent developments have thus forced GK to pull out its equipment and shut down its physical campus, the School for Experiential and Entrepreneurial Development (SEED), at the Enchanted Farm, according to the source.

Beneficiaries have allegedly been told that the sex abuse complaints against Meloto are part of a plot by the Oquiñena family, including current GK chairman Jose Luis Oquiñena, against the GK founder. 

Meloto, according to sources privy to the information, is now trying to get the beneficiaries’ sympathy at the expense of the GK leadership.

“His strategy is to win public opinion,” said a source familiar with the situation at the Enchanted Farm.

The source said the farm community “was being brainwashed” with promises that Meloto “will be leveling up their livelihood” after years of mismanagement under Oquiñena. The extent of the “brainwashing” was such that the residents “hated the organization that gave them homes.”

“He’s coming back as a hero to save them,” the source said. “He is manipulating them through their weakness, which is poverty.”

A resident of the Enchanted Farm said Meloto’s return was like a father coming home to them, after years of being ruled by outsiders.

SIGN OF LOVE. Tarpaulins in support of Antonio ‘Tony’ Meloto are seen around this 34-hectare farm in Barangay Encanto, Angat, Bulacan. Photo by Paterno Esmaquel II/Rappler

“Mahal namin si Tatay TM (We love Daddy TM),” said the resident, referring to Meloto by his initials TM.

Farm residents ‘left with no options’

It’s a war between giants that is now putting the poor in the crossfire. 

An undated paper by Eilidh Forster, a tropical forestry graduate student from Bangor University in Wales, estimated around 50 families or around 200 individuals at the Enchanted Farm.

Forster also noted that the farm “has incubated a number of successful businesses.” 

One of these is Human Nature, which “manufactures personal care products from natural organic ingredients” and which employed around 350 people at that time. Two others are Bayani Brew, an all-natural drink, and Plush and Play, which produces stuffed toys, given that Bulacan “was well-known in the local garment industry.”

A second informant told Rappler he was worried about the estimated 250 residents now living at the Enchanted Farm.

“The challenge, to be honest, is that the families in the GK Enchanted Farm are left with no options now and, somehow, even the ones who are critical of Tony Meloto would prefer that he succeeds in bringing in sponsors and visitors because they need clients for their businesses,” the informant said.

Rappler has emailed Meloto at least four times over the past three weeks, using the email address found in his DOJ counteraffidavit, to ask about the sex abuse case and the reported takeover of the Enchanted Farm. Separately, we have also tried to contact him through SMS, Viber, and X, but have not received a response as of posting time. 

We have also sent at least eight messages to GK and its current chairman, via email, text, and Messenger, but have not received a response to our queries about the sex complaint and the reported farm takeover. 

We have likewise visited the GK headquarters in Mandaluyong City to personally follow up on the matter, but an organization representative, who refused to identify himself to Rappler, declined to issue a comment. Chairman Oquiñena was not in the office at that time, the representative said. 

We will update this story once the concerned parties respond to our messages or issue any statement. 

Encanto Farm: ‘Bring back the magic’

To verify the leads provided by sources, Rappler recently visited the Enchanted Farm in Bulacan and confirmed that the farm is now undergoing a number of changes.

First, it is no longer called the GK Enchanted Farm. A sign at the entrance displays its new name: “Blue Zone Encanto Farm.” 

NEW NAME. The Gawad Kalinga Enchanted Farm in Angat, Bulacan, is now known as the Blue Zone Encanto Farm. Photo by Paterno Esmaquel II/Rappler

One of the farm’s famous products — peanut butter, which comes in different varieties, such as “malunggay” and “crunchy” — is no longer being manufactured by the GK brand First Harvest. Instead, it is now produced by Best Harvest.

The farm community is still inside, bustling with life: a father bringing his little daughter to school, women buying fish from ambulant vendors, and various people chatting as they carry vegetables or water plants.

But the physical structures from the farm’s glorious past — Berjaya Garden Restaurant and Culinary Center, Arch Angel-GK Center for Arts and Culture, and the now-padlocked office of First Harvest — seem to have been left to the elements, discolored and deserted. 

SIGNS OF THE PAST. A mural depicting the Gawad Kalinga brand Human Nature is seen in a multipurpose hall at the Encanto Farm. Photo by Paterno Esmaquel II/Rappler

The clearest signs of life, in terms of physical appearance, come in the form of tarpaulins displayed around the area, one of them hanging on a tree. 

“We fight, care, love (sic) Tito Tony Meloto,” the tarpaulin reads.

HE’S BACK. There’s no escaping the signs in support of Antonio ‘Tony’ Meloto when one enters the Encanto Farm. Photo by Paterno Esmaquel II/Rappler

In a photo shown to Rappler by a source, another set of tarpaulins compared the “GK Enchanted Farm before” and the “GK Enchanted Farm now.” It was an attempt to depict the farm as green and alive under Meloto, and disorganized under Oquiñena.

The promise of the new Encanto Farm is to “bring back the magic.”

Meloto spotted

And what a way to bring back the magic than by holding a coming-out party — the “Encanto Blue Zone Kabuhayan Festival” — at the farm on May 31.

A “free admission” event, it was held at the Enchanted Farm from 8 am to 8 pm that day, with a thanksgiving Mass at 10 am. A private shuttle from Quezon City, costing P250 ($4) per passenger, was even provided.

“Bring your family and friends to this day of joy, purpose, and bayanihan. Every meal, product, and ride helps sustain family enterprises and sends youth to school,” said a post on the Facebook page “Blue zone EF.”

“Let’s restore Enchanted Farm together,” it said.

A publicly accessible Facebook photo by one of the attendees showed that Meloto attended the Kabuhayan Festival, in the company of friends from Couples for Christ, which was once the mother organization of GK. The photo was dated May 31. 

Meloto’s vision, the photo caption read, was that “Encanto Farm will be reborn and become a source of pride for Angat once again.”

But the GK founder is now also moving beyond Encanto, signaling more complicated days ahead.

Meloto recently visited at least one other GK community — this time in Leyte — according to another publicly available photo on Facebook. “Thank you, Tito Tony Meloto, for visiting GK Leyte. Thank you for the wisdom that inspired us and gave hope,” the caption read.

Questions abound as both GK and Meloto keep their silence on the issue. What will happen to the Enchanted Farm? How will it affect the thousands that GK has helped? How will funders and donors address the matter?

In the face of a sex abuse case and an apparent power struggle, will people be forced to choose between an organization and its embattled founder? – Rappler.com