Lead prober of BuCor-Tadeco deal named

Chief State Counsel Ricardo Paras III has been tasked to lead the investigation into the allegedly anomalous multimillion-peso deal between the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) and a private company owned by Davao del Norte Rep. Antonio “Tonyboy” Floirendo.

In an April 4 order, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II designated Paras to lead the six-member panel to look into the claim of House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez that the government lost billions of pesos in the lease of 5,300 hectares of penal lands by Tagum Agricultural Development Corp. (Tadeco).

The BuCor, an agency of the Department of Justice, entered into a joint venture agreement with Tadeco in 1969 for the use of a portion of the Davao Penal and Prison Farm in Davao del Norte, which Tadeco turned into a banana plantation.