Taking on the challenge

I remember when the comprehensive agrarian reform law was still being ironed out in Congress how pioneers of agribusiness in Mindanao pointed out the fact that they had to battle malaria and other threats to develop these agricultural lands from scratch, only to be later kicked out from them because they have to be distributed to agrarian reform beneficiaries.

One of these so-called daredevils was mining engineer Don Antonio Floirendo Sr. who at that time called the bluff of Davao Penal Colony officials to take charge of their reservation area, consisting stretches of marshes in which only mosquitoes and gnats bred and grew in pestilential proportions, and transform mud holes and swamp holes into something fit for growing cash crops on.

It is said that the senior Floirendo left Manila as World War II came to a close in 1945, went to Mindanao for a chance to become an exclusive dealer of Ford vehicles, and opened Mindanao Motors Corp. in Cagayan de Oro in 1947, the first ever vehicle distribution company in the island.  

A year later, he broke ground for Davao Motor Sales (Damosa) in Davao City. For this, he was acknowledged as the man who put Mindanao “on wheels”.

In 1950, with savings from his two outfits, Don Antonio bought a 60-hectare property in Marapangi, Toril in Davao City. There he put up the Nenita Stock Farms with an initial 25,000 heads of swine. The agribusiness venture was recognized as Asia’s biggest swine farm in those days. Complementing the massive livestock production, Don Antonio built a Triple A abattoir, acknowledged as the most modern slaughterhouse in Asia back then.

Not content with profiting from engines and hogs, Don Antonio put up Tagum Agricultural Development Co. Inc. (Tadeco) in that same year, recognized by Fortune Magazine as the biggest abaca plantation in the world that produced Manila hemp or abaca ropes that are used to bale, bundle, or haul cargo worldwide.

And then the Bureau of Corrections in the Davao Penal Colony finalized an agreement with Tadeco for the government agency to take charge of the farming of abaca within their 200-hectare land as a more productive and lucrative mode of penal rehabilitation.

But as synthetic fibers and mechanization of sea-bound cargoes made inroads on abaca’s profitability, the old man switched to growing Cavendish bananas. Tadeco became the world’s largest contiguous banana plantation, and is eyeing to ship 32 million boxes or 432,000 metric tons of bananas this year. The company is engaged in the production and export of Cavendish bananas to Japan, Hong Kong, China, Korea, Middle East, Russia, Malaysia and Singapore under the Del Monte and Dole brands.

Unfortunately, the said agreement between BuCor and Tadeco is now being criticized as being prejudicial to the government since the lease rates are now much higher.

But then, it is argued that the BuCor-Tadeco deal is a joint venture agreement (JVA), not a lessor-lessee arrangement, otherwise the rental payments would go to the National Treasury, not to BuCor.

But more than being a profitable business arrangement, it is said that inmates at the Davao Prison and Penal Farm have benefitted far more from this. According to reports, in 2013, at least 800 inmates have received expert training and receive an average stipend of P7,664 per month. It is also said that Tadeco also rehired many inmates who had already completed their sentence and released. Inmate-worker participants in the JVA who have graduated from the Inmate Farm Workers Training and Exposure Program (IFTEP) had been trained in sophisticated Cavendish banana farming technology.

The same report showed that In 2016 alone, Tadeco spent over P142 million to defray costs of inmates’ farm training support, stipend, and training subsidy while the government received P295 million in tax revenues and fees from the JVA.

Since 1969 when the JVA was plied out, the work program is estimated to have assisted in the rehabilitation of more than 15,000 inmates, many of who are now living productive lives as employees of the various banana plantations surrounding the penal colony.

The reports reveal that the JVA was conceived as a means to rehabilitate the inmates of the Davao Prison and Penal Farm and that the success of the program resulting in eventual re-integration of inmates back to society as productive citizens is beyond monetary value.

But aside from inmate rehabilitation, the banana operations covered by the JVA has reportedly created 30,000 jobs.

Over the years, the said agreement has reportedly been reviewed by the Department of Justice, by at least 14 DOJ secretaries to be specific, and has been found to be beneficial to BuCor.

By 2012, the House of Representatives looked into the JVA and found that it was beneficial to the government and the community.

What seems to have been overlooked here is the fact that at that time, nobody dared enter that reservation area. Just like the Zubiris, the Lobregats who “rushed in where angels fear to tread,” because these areas of Mindanao appeared to be no man’s land and anybody who dared enter did so at the risk of losing everything, the elder Floirendo was also faced with the same risk. He gambled and his gamble paid off.

For comments, e-mail at [email protected]