Floirendo to Alvarez: Let’s settle this like gentlemen

DAVAO CITY , Philippines  – It’s simply a “brotherly misunderstanding” that they should settle like gentlemen, Davao Rep. Antonio Floirendo Jr. said yesterday, referring to his falling out with Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez who sued him for graft before the Office of the Ombudsman.

“If our quarrel stems from a personal matter between Speaker Alvarez and myself, I appeal to the Speaker to meet with me personally so that we can settle this like gentlemen,” Floirendo said in a statement sent through his lawyer Nicolas Bonga.

While refusing to delve on the verbal tussle between their girlfriends in October last year during a festival in Bacolod City, the banana magnate implied such incident could have sparked the animosity between him and his long-time buddy.

“I really do not know what happened to us. I am at a loss why things turned out this way. I do not know why suddenly he doesn’t talk to me anymore,” Floirendo of Davao del Norte’s 2nd district told The STAR.

“All I could remember was, I even picked him up when he was down,” Floirendo said, referring to the time when Alvarez was involved in the controversial NAIA Terminal 3 contract with Philippine International Air Terminals Co. Inc.

He said it was he who convinced Alvarez to run for Congress in the 2016 elections.

Floirendo said it was just unfortunate that in their supposed rift, his family’s Tagum Agricultural Development Corp. (Tadeco) got involved.

He insisted that everything about the operation of Tadeco, including its transaction with the Bureau of Corrections for use of its reservation as a banana plantation, was aboveboard.

“Let me make it clear that Speaker Bebot and I have no fight with each other,” he said, referring to the Speaker by his nickname. “If ever there is a conflict, it could be likened to a brotherly misunderstanding which I’m sure would be patched up in no time at all.”

In a statement sent to the media, the top campaign contributor of President Duterte in the May 2016 polls said he “would like everyone to know that I tried and reached out to him but he refused to talk to me since this all started.”

“Admittedly I am hurt with the action of Speaker Alvarez against me. It not only affects me but also my family as well as the people of Davao del Norte,” Floirendo added, referring to the graft charges Alvarez filed against him.

“But that’s politics. What is important is that I know deep down in my conscience that I have not done anything wrong nor have I committed any criminal act. I welcome any complaint to be filed against me and I am ready to face them with a clear conscience,” he said.

“I still offer a hand of friendship to Speaker Alvarez amidst all that happened for the benefit of the people of Davao del Norte. And to show my full support to the Duterte administration that is doing amazingly well for the past nine months,” Floirendo stressed.

No hand in ouster plot

Floirendo categorically denied Alvarez’s insinuations he was behind moves to have the Speaker ousted and replaced by former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Alvarez had stripped Arroyo of her position as deputy speaker due to her refusal to support the re-imposition of the death penalty being championed by the Speaker.

“I did not give any statement then to defend myself as there was no truth to it at all,” he pointed out.

“I never attempted to talk to Arroyo nor would I ever support any plot to oust Speaker Alvarez who, in the first place, is a good friend of mine and whom I fully supported during the last election and in his bid for the speakership,” he declared.

“If ever there is an iota of truth to the ouster plot, I am 100 percent not a part of it,” he said.

In a second statement released yesterday afternoon, Floirendo said he was surprised by Alvarez’s graft complaint.

“He had already made some public statements against me in the recent past... Because these allegations happened 14 years ago, I am curious as to his real intentions and the real issues,” he said.

He said he had nothing to do with the renewal of the Tadeco lease for the BuCor property.

Floirendo said he has not received a copy of the Alvarez complaint, filed on March 13.

“But once such copy is available, my lawyers and I will look into it. I will face this case with clean hands and I am positive that the allegations therein will easily be disproved,” he added.

Floirendo appealed to Alvarez to open his line of communication to him, as old friends, “if our quarrel stems from a personal matter.”

Meanwhile, the Floirendo-owned Tadeco is standing pat on its position that all of its transactions with the government have been transparent, and that everything about the banana plantation’s joint venture agreement (JVA) is aboveboard.

“The Department of Justice, through its representative attorney Teresita Domingo, stated that the JVA is actually aboveboard,” Tadeco president Alex Viloria said, referring to the “congressional review” conducted in 2012, negating claims about its alleged lopsidedness.

After an assessment, the JVA with the BuCor at the Davao Penal Colony, where the banana plantation is located, was “found to be advantageous to the government numerous times by the executive and the legislative departments in past administrations.”

Viloria also rebuffed Alvarez’s claims in the complaint he filed with the Office of the Ombudsman that Tadeco and BuCor’s deal is that of a lease agreement renewable in 25 years, saying it’s a JVA primarily aimed at the rehabilitation of the inmates in the Davao Penal Colony.

“This rehabilitation program has been found to be very successful by BuCor up to the extent that the latter has even requested Tadeco to replicate the JVA program to its penal colony in Iwahig, Palawan,” he explained.

The Speaker has also initiated a congressional inquiry, through House Resolution 867, into the contract in which the government is reportedly being taken for a ride.

“It’s entirely false,” Viloria insisted.

Tadeco, he argued, has likewise never been involved in exploiting its workers. “Such allegation is completely baseless. Tadeco takes good care of its workers. This is evident in the high production yield, indicating that the workers are well motivated and very productive,” he stressed.

“In fact, among all the banana companies in the Philippines, Tadeco has been branded as a champion on labor and community relations. It is a regular recipient of awards in the field of labor-management relations,” Viloria pointed out.

Tadeco was a recipient in 2013 and 2015 of the Outstanding Labor-Management Cooperation for Industrial Peace Award given by the Philippine League of Labor Management Cooperation Practitioners.

“Tadeco is now vying to be a grand slam winner in this category. These are just a few of the many awards and citations of Tadeco,” he said.  –  Edith Regalado, Jess Diaz