House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez. Photo by Noy Morcoso/INQUIRER.net
Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on Tuesday forced the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) and Tagum Agricultural Development Company Inc. (Tadeco) to open a road within the banana-growing area to the public, despite protests that it would lead to the spread of diseases that could kill the entire banana industry.
At a hearing on Wednesday by the House good government and public accountability committee, Alvarez rejected BuCor and Tadeco’s reasoning that roads in the area had to be restricted to prevent the spread of the fusarium wilt, a highly infectious fungal disease deadly to bananas.
“What is important, the fusarium or the people who use the road?” Alvarez asked Supt. Gerardo Padilla of the Davao Prison and Penal Colony (Dapecol) .
‘Gross ignorance’
Padilla tried to explain that BuCor “could open” the road “any time” with clearance from the provincial agricultural office.
Alvarez spat: “Why, what’s the right of the provincial agriculture to open the government’s road?”
“You are displaying your gross ignorance. How did you become the director there?” Alvarez told Padilla.
Tadeco president Alexander Valoria requested for a month to comply with the Speaker’s directive because of the need to install foot baths and tire dips on the road. Valoria explained that fusarium wilt was spread through soil or water.
1 month ‘too long’
“We need to put in the biosecurity measures and we’ll need a little time to build that,” Valoria said.
But Pimentel said “one month seems quite long.”
Alvarez had filed a resolution seeking an inquiry into the deal between BuCor and Tadeco for the use of more than 5,000 hectares of Dapecol land as banana plantations.
The Speaker also filed a graft complaint against his erstwhile friend, Davao del Norte Rep. Antonio Floirendo Jr., whose family owned Tadeco.
Floirendo’s scheduled arraignment on Tuesday was postponed.
Tadeco had said it was preparing to file charges against those responsible for the destruction of the company’s biosecurity barrier at the village of Tanglaw in Braulio E. Dujali town, Davao del Norte, recently.
Valoria described the destruction of the barrier as an act of abuse by personnel of the Department of Public Works and Highways.