DAVAO CITY—The camp of Rep. Antonio R. Floirendo Jr. of the Second District of Davao del Norte reacted to the recent Congressional probe on the family banana-plantation operation inside the Davao Prison and Penal Farm, saying the probe has turned personal because of his archenemy, the House speaker.
Floirendo said the inquiry failed to produce “documentary evidence and a single testimony to impugn the deal which, in the first place, was started when the government offered its penal farms for development.”
“The recent February 7 hearing of the House of Representatives on the joint-venture agreement [JVA] between the Davao Prison and Penal Farm [DPPF, formerly called Dapecol] and the Tagum Agricultural Development Corp. [Tadeco] facetiously turned into a witch hunt,” he added.
Admitting he was irked, he said the inquiry, “the fifth time it was done to scrutinize the shared accord, failed to come up with even a single testimony.” He added: “It was lamentable that, in the failure to pin down alleged anomalies in the joint-venture agreement, House Speaker Pantaleon [D.] Alvarez has injected unrelated and false issues in the hearing.”
“For hitting a blank wall, Mr. Alvarez resorted to manufactured charges, accusing my family of poll manipulation, preventing people from entering Dapecol, a public land, and pursuing claims that Dapecol lands were not properly surveyed,” he said.
As far back as last year, the two congressmen were at loggerheads, their quarrel hogging the spotlight that eventually dragged their respective mistresses into the fray.
President Duterte has kept his distance, although the two were his staunch allies and supporters.
Floirendo was one of the biggest contributors to Duterte’s Presidential campaign kitty, while Alvarez was known to muster Congressional support to administration programs and policies.
Alvarez said Floirendo’s family owned Tadeco and has allegedly used “poll manipulation, preventing people from entering Dapecol, a public land.”
On the contrary, Floirendo said, “It is public knowledge that people go in and out of Barangay A. O. Floirendo in my district every single day. No one is getting limited access to public areas, and this is true during election periods.”
“Movement of personnel, however, is limited in certain areas for biosecurity reasons and in compliance with the guidelines set by the phytosanitary agencies of foreign trade partners. The restrictions, moreover, have nothing to do with the JVA but are part of the production agreements that Tadeco, as plantation operator, has signed with exporters, which are bound by quarantine, safety and security standards set by their respective countries,” Floirendo added.