Tadeco ready to defend deal with BuCor

MANILA, Philippines - The Tagum Agricultural Development Co., the largest banana exporter in the country, is ready to defend its joint venture agreement (JVA) with the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor),   an official said yesterday.

“We have made our position very clear from the start of this controversy. We are on solid constitutional grounds,” company president Alex Valoria said in a statement.

Valoria welcomed the statement of Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre ll that he ordered the BuCor to cancel its JVA with Tadeco and filed a case in court.

He said the court could resolve the constitutional and legal issues that Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez raised about Tadeco’s transaction with BuCor.

The JVA covers more than 5,000 hectares of land that Tadeco transformed into a banana plantation in 1969. The family of Davao del Norte Rep. Antonio Floirendo Jr. owns Tadeco.

Disputing the claims of Aguirre and Alvarez, Valoria said the Constitution provides that the state “may enter into co-production, joint venture, or production-sharing agreements with Filipino citizens, corporations or associations at least 60 percent of which... is owned by such citizens in the exploration, development and utilization of natural resources.”

“Every administration investigated our joint venture agreement and found it to be constitutional and legal. At least eight secretaries of justice passed upon it and saw nothing wrong with it,” Valoria said.

He said the Senate and the House in previous congresses determined that the JVA “was beneficial to the government and communities in the area.”

“Last year, we paid P143 million in rental and production share to BuCor and more than P430 million in taxes to the government. We employ more than 12,000 workers, 800 of whom are inmates,” Valoria said.