Zero funding smacks of vendetta, says Floirendo

Rep. Antonio Floirendo Jr.

Zero is for vendetta, Davao del Norte Rep. Antonio Floirendo Jr. said on Thursday as he slammed Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez for removing infrastructure funding for his district in the 2018 budget.

“I am not opposition. This is more of a political vendetta,” Floirendo said in a statement.

Floirendo was one of 24 members of the House of Representatives who ended up with zero or vastly reduced infrastructure fund allocations after last-minute changes during bicameral discussions on the P3.767-trillion budget that President Duterte signed on Tuesday.

Floirendo, who backed Alvarez in the 2016 congressional elections before their spat last year, called the Speaker a “heartless politician” and his move “a disservice to the people and a heavy burden to the administration.”

The congressman said the zero budget allocation given to his district “speaks of how he (Alvarez) looks at the people of Davao del Norte—as sacrificial lambs to his ultimate goal of bringing me down.”

‘Undesirable’ lawmakers

Alvarez, who represents Davao del Norte’s first district, admitted on Wednesday that the 24 “undesirable” lawmakers had lost their infrastructure funding for their districts due to politics.

Most of the 24 are opposition lawmakers. Floirendo, however, is an administration ally who has fallen from the good graces of the House leadership.

Alvarez and Floirendo were bosom friends who had an acrimonious spat that erupted last year.

Alvarez initiated an inquiry into a contract entered into by the Bureau of Corrections and the Floirendo family’s Tagum Agriculture Development Co. (Tadeco) for the use of a 5,000-hectare estate owned by the Davao Prison and Penal Farm for Floirendos’ banana plantation in the province.

Alvarez also recommended the filing of graft cases against Floirendo.

Extramarital affairs

The rift between the two lawmakers surfaced after news reports suggested that they had a falling out when their respective mistresses figured in a public altercation late last year.

The fight was aggravated by rumors that Floirendo was plotting to oust Alvarez and install former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as Speaker.

The two lawmakers are known allies of Mr. Duterte, with Floirendo’s family contributing P75 million to the campaign kitty of the former longtime mayor of Davao City who became the country’s 16th President.

“Alvarez is willing to sacrifice the welfare of the people of Davao del Norte just so he could hit back at me,” said the son of the late banana baron, Antonio Floirendo Sr.

Major setback

Floirendo said the zero infrastructure funding allocation would be a major setback for his district, which includes the component cities of Samal and Panabo, and the banana and rice-growing towns of Sto. Tomas, Carmen and Braulio Dujali.

He earlier promised his constituents in the agriculturally productive but flood-prone second district to “bring home the bacon,” referring to much-needed infrastructures.

Floirendo said he would look for other sources and other means to fund his infrastructure projects.

Alvarez justified his move to deny budget allocations for infrastructure projects of  the 24 lawmakers as a House practice no different from previous administrations.

“It’s a question of leadership. I have to take care of my members,” he said.

Preparing for 2019 polls

Recently, the two congressmen have been consolidating their respective support bases in the two districts  in preparation for the 2019 midterm elections.

Alvarez and other stalwarts of Partido ng Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan conducted a mass oath-taking of new recruits, numbering about 8,000, in Panabo City on Nov. 30.

Early this month, Floirendo also swore in municipal and village officials into his local party, Kusog Baryohanon, in an event attended by thousands in Carmen town.  —REPORTS FROM FRINSTON LIM AND DJ YAP