Accusations that Bea Alonzo grabbed land from an indigenous group reached the actress’ legal team on January 19.
Bea’s farm in Zambales previously gained buzz on Twitter after a user alleged that she and her family stole it from the Aeta’s.
Called the Beati Farm, it is a 16-hectare land tucked within the municipality of Iba, Zambales that she invested in back in 2011.
In a vlog on January 14, Bea shared that she and her family enjoyed home-cooked merienda-dinner with their Aeta neighbors.
Bea and her brother James and sister-in-law Thalia prepared Chicken Hamonado and Arroz Valenciana (Bringhe) for these neighbors.
This was reported by news outlets on January 17.
Mixed reactions
Many lauded Bea and her family’s sweet gesture to their Aeta neighbors.
Some, however, viewed the gesture differently.
“That’s nice, now how about giving their land back,” a Twitter user said in a quote retweet to a report about their gathering.
As of writing, the Twitter account can no longer be accessed.
The tweet, however, reached Bea’s legal counsel.
Lawyer Joey Garcia of the GERA law firm wrote a stern warning against the user in response to the land-grabbing accusation.
His statement was published on Pep.ph, an entertainment publication, on January 19.
“Let this message serve as a stern and final warning to that fellow who made the disparaging remarks against Ms. Bea Alonzo on social media to retract his/her unfounded accusation and to cease from further making defamatory statements that bring disrepute to our client,” Garcia said.
“Otherwise, we shall be constrained to initiate all the appropriate legal actions against him/her in no time,” he added.
Garcia also said that their client “vehemently opposes” the online user’s claim. The lawyer described it as “irresponsible and highly outrageous.”
“For the record, our client vehemently opposes that baseless and very unfair accusation. She and her family are the absolute and registered owners of the parcels of land in Zambales, acquired through legal and valid means,” he said.
Following the land-grabbing allegations, many stood by Bea and defended her from critics who alleged that the Kapuso star used her Aeta neighbors to gain views for her content.
They pointed out that the vlog was neither about the indigenous group nor the dinner.
ni wala nga sa thumbnail…ya’ll https://t.co/pRMcJdOfpQ pic.twitter.com/pF86OmCIpj
— sy💗 #CrashCourseInRomance era (@sy_luvvvv) January 18, 2023
The 18-minute vlog which was being talked about mostly presented the process of making Chicken Hamonado and Arroz Valenciana (Bringhe) as the title suggests.
The cooking skills of James, Bea’s brother who graduated from the Center of Culinary Arts in Manila, were also showcased in the video.
The vlog has since garnered more than 705,000 on YouTube so far.