Alvarez vs Floirendo: Political or personal

Pantaleon Alvarez (second from left) and Antonio Floirendo Jr. (second from right) were good friends and were all smiles in late 2015, as they filed their certificates of candidacies for Congress for the 2016 national elections. With them were Alvarez’s wife, Emily (left) and Floirendo’s partner, Cathy Binag. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

TAGUM CITY—For Rep. Antonio “Tonyboy” Floirendo Jr. (second district, Davao del Norte), politics is Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez’s motive for suing him for graft over his family’s banana business deal with the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor).

But for Floirendo’s common-law wife, Cathy Binag, the kink in the relationship between the two allies of President Rodrigo Duterte started when Alvarez’s wife, Emily, and their children ran to them for help in the Speaker’s womanizing.

Floirendo and Alvarez had always been the best of friends.

In the 2016 elections, Floirendo bankrolled Alvarez’s campaign for the seat of Davao del Norte’s first district in the House of Representatives. He also aggressively backed Alvarez in the race for the speakership.

Binag said the relationship soured when she had an altercation with the Speaker’s companion during the Masskara Festival in Bacolod City in October.

“All that is true,” she said. But other things later worsened the situation, she said.

Alvarez did not reply to the Inquirer’s request for comment.

Floirendo statement

In a statement, Floirendo said his apparent falling out with Alvarez started when rumors began circulating that Alvarez would be stripped of the speakership and be replaced with former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Alvarez booted Arroyo out as Deputy Speaker for voting against the death penalty bill.

Floirendo denied having a hand in efforts to give Alvarez a dose of his own medicine.

“I did not give any statement then to defend myself as there was no truth to it at all. 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,” said Floirendo, son of the late banana king Antonio Floirendo Sr.

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

Floirendo admitted that he was hurt by the action of Alvarez, saying it affected not only him and his family but also the people of Davao del Norte.

“But that’s politics. What is important is that I know deep down in my conscience that I have not done anything wrong nor I have committed any criminal act,” he said.

In his complaint dated March 13, Alvarez accused Floirendo of graft because he was still a congressman when his company, Tagum Agricultural Development Corp. (Tadeco), renewed a 25-year joint venture agreement (JVA) with BuCor, which runs the Davao Penal Colony (Dapecol), on May 21, 2003.

The original deal was signed in 1969.

Alvarez said Floirendo violated the law because “Floirendo had a clear financial and pecuniary interest” in the deal with BuCor.

Tadeco said Alvarez’s allegations that its deal with BuCor for the use of Dapecol land was grossly disadvantageous to the government was erroneous.

“Tadeco continues to perform its obligations and responsibilities under the JVA confident in its contributions to the government and socioeconomic development. Thus Tadeco is befuddled as to the real reasons why Speaker Alvarez has initiated this inquiry,” the company  said in a statement on Wednesday.

Inmates’ rehab

It said the arrangement was not a lease agreement but a joint venture “that is primarily aimed at the rehabilitation of inmates at Dapecol.”

“The JVA has been reviewed and found to be advantageous to the government numerous times by the executive and the legislative departments in past administrations. In fact, the most recent review in the 15th Congress in 2012 once again arrived at the same positive conclusion regarding the JVA and its benefits to [the] government. The Department of Justice, through its representative, Atty. Teresita Domingo, during [the] congressional review stated that the JVA is actually aboveboard,” Tadeco said.

The company also denied reports that it was abusing workers, saying Tadeco was enjoying high production yields due in part to “well-motivated and very productive workers.”

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

Tadeco said it was also open to rate adjustments in its payments to BuCor when the deal was renewed in 2004. The rates agreed were “the most competitive” at the time, it said.

Under the deal, which covers 5,308.36 hectares of Dapecol land, Tadeco pays the government through BuCor P26.54 million yearly, as guaranteed annual production share, and an additional 10 percent every five years.

“As can be understood, the changes in economic conditions over the past 13 years have affected the competitiveness of [those] rates. Tadeco understands this and stated back in 2011 its willingness to discuss and adjust the rates as it had done in the past,” the company said.

Efforts to adjust the rates, however, made no progress because of frequent changes in the bureau’s leadership.

No quarrel

Floirendo said he was open to patching things up  with Alvarez “for the benefit of the people of Davao del Norte and to show my full support to the Duterte administration, [which] is doing amazingly well for the past nine months.”

“Let me make it clear that Speaker Bebot and I have no fight with each other,” he said.

“If ever there is a conflict, it could be likened to a brotherly misunderstanding, which I am sure [can] be patched up in no time at all. And I would like everyone to know that I tried and reached out to him but he refused to talk to me since this all started,” he added.

In a follow-up statement, Floirendo declined to directly comment on Binag’s claim, but said if the issue was fueled by a  “personal matter,” he was willing to discuss it with Alvarez.

“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.

“For now, I ask the public not to be swayed by false allegations, especially my constituents in district 2, Davao del Norte,” he added.

Floirendo noted, though, that even before the filing of the graft complaint, Alvarez had already been issuing public statements against him.

“I had tried reaching out to him at that time but to no avail,” Floirendo said.

“Because these allegations happened 14 years ago, I am curious as to his real intentions and the real issues. I just hope that this is not due to some vested interests,” he added.

Floirendo also denied having a personal interest in the Tadeco-BuCor deal.

“I can assure everyone that I was not in any way involved in the negotiation of the JVA between Tadeco and BuCor in 2003,” he said.

Floirendo said he had yet to receive a copy of the complaint.

“I will face this case with clean hands and I am positive that the allegations therein will easily be disproved,” he said. —WITH A REPORT FROM ALLAN NAWAL