Rody defends Alvarez: How many lawmakers are without affairs?

MANILA, Philippines - Amid threats of disbarment over his extramarital affairs, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez has found a defender in President Duterte.

“Ilan ang lawmakers na may dalawa, tatlong babae (How many lawmakers have two, three women)?” the President asked yesterday. “Lahat kami wala nang ranggo pag ganon. Sino ba’ng walang kaligayahan (We will all lose our positions if that’s the case. Who has no source of joy)?”

He also accused Alvarez’s critics of hypocrisy, claiming that even priests, who are supposed to be celibate, have girlfriends.

This developed as administration lawmakers yesterday urged Alvarez and Davao del Norte Rep. Antonio “Tonyboy” Floirendo Jr. to settle their quarrel so as not to derail Duterte’s legislative agenda.

Alvarez last week accused Floirendo’s Tagum Agricultural Development Co. (Tadeco), a banana exporting company, of having an anomalous
contract with the government. But reports said their feud stemmed from an altercation between the Speaker’s mistress and Floirendo’s live-in partner.

Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo of the second district called on lawmakers to “exert all efforts to patch up the differences between the two influential figures in the House of Representatives so as not to derail the legislative agenda of the President.”

Rep. Alfred Vargas of Quezon City’s fifth district reminded that lawmakers “still have so much to do” so they should not lose sight of their mandate and set aside personal differences.

Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers believes that Alvarez and Floirendo will eventually bury the hatchet.

“In my view, it will be resolved sooner than we think. You know, guys are just like that,” Barbers said. “Personally, I don’t think this issue will divide the House and derail the legislative agenda.”

Alvarez: Tonyboy must explain lopsided deal first

But Alvarez is apparently hell-bent on pursuing the House probe he initiated and the graft charges he filed against Floirendo, his former best friend.

“Ipaliwanag niya muna itong ma-anomalyang transaction niya sa gobyerno. Iyang friendship madali na lang iyan (He should explain first his anomalous transaction with the government. The friendship is easy),” he said.

“My friendship with him ends where my loyalty to my country begins,” he added.

Under the 25-year joint venture agreement that is expected to lapse in 2028, Tadeco has committed to give the Bureau Corrections (BuCor) P26.541 million per year or a lease rate of P5,000 per hectare for the 5,308 hectares in Davao Prison and Penal Farm.

Tadeco also pegged the government’s share from Tadeco’s banana exports at P1.3258 per box or just 0.22 percent of a box of bananas with an average price of P600 per box in the market.

The pro-Duterte watchdog group Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) backed the House probe initiated by Alvarez as well as the graft charges he filed before the Office of the Ombudsman against Floirendo’s Tadeco.

VACC founding chair Dante Jimenez said the terms on land rentals and profit share signed between Tadeco and the Davao penal colony in May 2003 were “grossly disadvantageous to the government.”

Jimenez said the national government should be getting at least P1 billion in rent and P900 million in profit share annually from Tadeco over its joint venture agreement with BuCor over the long-term lease of 5,308 hectares in Davao penal colony.

He said similar developed agricultural lands will fetch as much as P200,000 per hectare. In Tadeco’s case, it should be paying the government up P1.061 billion per year.

“With an en estimated annual sales of 30 million boxes per year, the government would only be getting P40.584 million annually versus Tadeco’s annual revenues of P18 billion,” he added.

Alvarez also wants the 5,308.36 hectares in the penal farm to be open for bidding to interested parties.

“It should be opened up for bidding so other groups or companies could also bid for it to ensure that government earns much more than what it is getting now from the Floirendos,” Alvarez told The STAR in a phone interview yesterday.

He said the Floirendos could also participate in the bidding if it pushes through as one of the interested parties.

Alvarez has refused to acknowledge Floirendo’s offer for them to settle their differences like “real gentlemen” following reports that their feud stemmed from an altercation between the Speaker’s mistress and Floirendo’s live-in partner.

“It was not his statement, it was the statement of his public relations staff. If they want that issue (altercation between their mistresses), let’s talk about it on a separate venue, perhaps in a parlor. I don’t want to dignify it because the government is not benefitting from it,” he said.

He also responded to the query from the public as to why he is seeking a House probe on Tadeco’s joint venture agreement with the Bureau of Corrections and Davao penal colony after more than a decade had passed.

“Why only now? Because they have been hiding that contract for a long time,” he said.

In an earlier statement, Floirendo said he has not committed any wrongdoing.