MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the Ombudsman has ordered the indictment of Davao del Norte Rep. Antonio Floirendo Jr. for having business interests in a banana plantation doing business with the government.
In an 11-page resolution approved by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales last Monday, Floirendo was ordered charged before the Sandiganbayan for violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
Morales said Floirendo, as a government official, violated Section 3(h) of RA 3019 which prohibits him from “directly or indirectly having financial or pecuniary interest in any business, contract or transaction in connection with which he intervenes or takes part in his official capacity, or in which he is prohibited by the Constitution or by any law from having any interest.”
The resolution was in response to the complaint filed by Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez last March.
Alvarez alleged Floirendo continues to be a board member of Tagum Agricultural Development Co. Inc. (Tadeco) even after his election as a member of the House of Representatives.
Tadeco entered into a joint venture agreement (JVA) with the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) in 1969 that allowed the firm to lease 3,000 hectares of land in the Davao Penal Colony for a banana plantation.
Tadeco is the world’s largest contiguous banana plantation, 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.
The ombudsman found merit in Alvarez’s allegation that when the agreement was renewed in 2003, Floirendo was elected as representative of Davao del Norte’s second congressional district.
Even though he ceased being a board member, Floirendo allegedly still owned 75,000 shares of stock and even became vice chairman of Tadeco in 2008.
“There is no dispute that at the time the 2003 Agreement between Tadeco and BuCor was entered into, respondent was a public officer as he was then serving his 2001-2004 term as representative of the 2nd District of Davao del Norte,” the resolution read.
“He also had a direct and indirect financial interest in said contract, owning at the time 75,000 hectares of Tadeco worth P7,500,000. It is also worth noting that most of the stocks of Tadeco are owned by, or through ANFLOCOR under the control of, respondent and his family,” it added.
The ombudsman said Floirendo’s failure to divest all his interests in Tadeco, no matter how small their value are, was a direct violation of the 1987 Constitution.
“Article VI, Section 14 of the 1987 Constitution is very clear, a member of the House of Representatives is not allowed to have a direct or indirect financial interest in any contract with the government. Had the intention been to exclude ownership of small value of stocks in a corporation, the framers of the Constitution could have stated it,” the ombudsman said.
A special panel of the Commission on Audit (COA) earlier recommended the cancellation of the Tadeco-BuCor joint venture agreement for supposedly violating the constitutional limits on the area of leasable public agricultural land.
In its six-page Audit Observation Memorandum dated April 25, 2017, the special team created by COA to investigate the BuCor-Tadeco deal, said the joint venture deal, which is in the form of a Leasehold and Share Tenancy Agreement, is in violation of the 1935 and the 1987 Constitutions.
“The contract or agreement entered into by Tadeco and BuCor, whether it is worded as Agreement, Leasehold Share and Tenancy, or JVA, does not matter. What is obvious is the excessive holding of agricultural land by Tadeco...This being so, the JVA is unconstitutional,” said the audit.