Tag Archives: dapecol
TADECO: DIRTY TRICKS NOT OUR BUSINESS
NO DIRTY TRICKS IN TADECO-BUCOR DEAL RESOLUTION
VALORIA BELIES TADECO HAND IN ‘COERCION’ YARN VS. HOUSE
Tagum Agricultural Development Company, Inc. (TADECO) will not resort to dirty tactics in seeking a favorable resolution to its questioned joint venture with the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) covering over 5,000 hectares of government land in Davao del Norte.
A circulating claim says that TADECO has been suggesting that the leadership of the House of Representatives has coerced three government agencies to declare as illegal the Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) between TADECO and the BuCor.
TADECO denies it is behind the circulating claim that hits the House and Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.
TADECO does not muddle in propaganda, said Alex Valoria, TADECO president and chief executive officer.
The House is conducting an inquiry into the 25-year JVA involving idle lands of the Davao Penal Colony (Dapecol), a line agency of the BuCor.
The probe was instigated by Alvarez who claimed that the deal was illegal and disadvantageous to the government.
TADECO says the JVA is legal and approved by Congress and government agencies including the Office of the President.
The circulating claim of arm-twisting by the House leadership is an apparent dirty missile fired to destroy Alvarez’s credibility.
The House probe inspired by Alvarez followed a public quarrel between the Speaker’s girlfriend and the partner of Rep. Antonio Floirendo Jr. Alvarez is also hounding Floirendo, whose family owns TADECO, with a graft case at the Ombudsman and a request at the DOJ to cancel the JVA.
TADECO is the country’s biggest banana producer and exporter.
Alvarez and Floirendo, both of Davao del Norte, are former political allies and long-time friends.
TADECO is largely credited for helping the the economic progress of Davao del Norte.
“Our organization that is recognized for its best practices does not muddle in propaganda,” said Valoria. Dirty tactics is not TADECO’s business, he said.
“To malign and mislead or argue issues without legal basis, is contrary to our corporate values,” said Valoria.
“While we maintain the JVA with BuCor is a contract legally negotiated, we take care not to muddle the issues as we only want to present arguments that are accurate, rational, and valid,” said Valoria.
Valoria issued the statement as the banana growing company took exceptions to the claim that it has been suggesting that the House leadership has coerced the Commission on Audit (COA), the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) into an unfavorable stand against the TADECO-BuCor land deal.
It is not the mission of our organization that is recognized for its best practices to muddle in propaganda issues because “it is contrary to our corporate values to malign and mislead, or argue issues without legal basis,” Valoria said.
Valoria also reacted to the comment of Alvarez that TADECO is the only one claiming that the JVA is above board.
“We base our arguments on the approvals of the government authorities at the time the JVA was executed and the applicable laws and jurisprudence of the Philippines, he said.
“The JVA is a consensual arrangement, which has stood the test of time. We involve ourselves only in honest business dealings, not in bogus claims,” said Valoria in a retort to Alvarez’s claim the TADECO-BuCor deal is not a JVA, illegal and disadvantageous to government.
OSG
Solicitor General Jose Calida, in an earlier statement, said the TADECO-BuCor deal is void “as it goes against the Constitution and the Public Land Act.”
TADECO said Calida’s statement was “premature and uninformed” coming as it did while the DOJ was reviewing the JVA and the House conducting an inquiry.
Calida is not involved in both the review and congressional inquiry, said TADECO, adding that there is no case filed before the courts on the cancellation of the JVA.
Only the courts of law can declare that a contract is void, the company said.
TADECO suspects that Calida has ill motives on the issue.
“This is a clear case of prejudging our JVA. Perhaps the intent is to condition the minds of the public and pre-empt the review by the DOJ as well as the House probe,” TADECO said.
COA
The Commission on Audit (COA), on the other hand, found that Tadeco “far exceeded” the 1,000-hectare limit when it established the banana plantation in violation of RA 1199.
COA argued the TADECO-BuCor deal is not a JVA but a leasehold agreement.
TADECO said COA’s findings were “based on the erroneous application of laws and constitutional provisions.”
The provisions COA cited as bases for the supposed violations cannot be applied to the Tadeco-BuCor agreement,” Valoria said.
“The Davao Penal Colony is a government reservation, thus, it is an inalienable land and cannot be the subject of a lease agreement as stated under RA 1199,” Valoria pointed out.
He emphasized that the contract between BuCor and Tadeco is a joint venture agreement, with the primary purpose of helping the rehabilitation of inmates of Dapecol.
“Its goal of making profits is only secondary to the main goal of inmate rehabilitation,” Valoria said, adding that BuCor and Tadeco are prohibited under the Public Land Act (Commonwealth Act 141) from entering into a lease arrangement.
Further pushing his argument, Valoria also cited the 1987 Constitution.
There is now an express provision in the Constitution allowing joint venture arrangement involving exploration, development and utilization of natural resources. Natural resources include inalienable public lands like the Dapecol, Valoria said.
DOJ
Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre, for his part also earlier, said the land deal was illegal, based on findings of the DOJ review committee.
At the House hearing, however, Aguirre told legislators that DOJ has no power to cancel the JVA.
Only the President can cancel the contract, he said.
TADECO PAID P438M IN TAXES
TADECO-BUCOR JVA TO BE REPLICATED IN IWAHIG
The Tagum Agricultural Development Corporation (TADECO) paid nearly half a billion pesos in taxes in 2016, belying allegations its agreement to develop idle prison lands into a banana plantation was “disadvantageous” to the government.
An audited financial statement obtained from the giant Cavendish banana growing and exporting company, revealed that in 2016 alone, Tadeco paid to the government P438 million representing taxes and fees. The payments included real property taxes, business permits and fees, withholding tax on compensation, fringe benefits, and regulatory fees.
House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez has called for a congressional investigation into the Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) between Tadeco and the Bureau of Corrections (Bucor) over unproductive lands of the Davao Penal Colony (Dapecol) in Sto. Tomas town in Davao del Norte.
The JVA was first signed in 1956. It was last renewed in 2013, after a review by Congress.
Under the JVA, Tadeco developed the land into a banana plantation without the government spending a single centavo. And as the JVA was primarily aimed as a rehabilitation program for inmates, Tadeco hired prisoners of Dapecol as workers paid with minimum wage.
Of the about 8,000 current workers employed in the banana farm under the JVA area, more than 1,000 are male inmates doing farm work and at least 100 women prisoners assigned to the packing plants.
Due to its success as a rehabilitation program for prisoners, BuCor is planning to adopt the TADECO-Bucor JVA for implementation in Iwahig Penal Colony in Palawan.
Tadeco, founded by the late banana magnate Don Antonio Floirendo in the 60s, is credited with the economic progress of once dormant Davao del Norte. The pioneering Tadeco has also placed the country in the map of the world’s largest banana-producing countries.
Today it continues to pump-prime the country’s economy, and that of Davao del Norte and neighboring provinces of the Davao Region where it extended its banana plantations, with revenues from export Cavendish bananas, one of the country’s biggest dollar earners.
In its statement on financial benefits and assistance to Dapecol and its inmates and the community, Tadeco shelled out P1.62 billion over a 12-year period (2004-2016).
Tadeco’s biggest spending – P2.2 billion went to cultivation of the 5,300-hectare land covered by the JVA, at P400,000 per hectare in development cost.
In calling for a House inquiry, Alvarez (First District, Davao del Norte), said the Tadeco-Bucor JVA was “grossly disadvantageous” to the government.
On the prodding of Alvarez, the House committee on Justice and the committee on Good Governance and Public Accountability, were to begin conduct of a joint committee hearing on May 9.
Aside from his House resolution to conduct the probe, Alvarez also has filed a graft complaint at the Ombudsman in connection with the JVA against Davao del Norte First District Representative Antonio Floirendo, Jr., son the late Don Antonio.
Alvarez said Rep. Floirendo has “pecuniary interest” in Tadeco, and was a sitting congressman who failed to divest himself of his interest in the company when the renewal of the JVA was approved by Congress in 2013.
Alexander N. Valoria, president and CEO of the Antonio O. Floirendo Management and Investment Corp. (Anflocor), has disputed Alvarez’s claim, saying the Tadeco-BuCor JVA, is “legal and advantageous to the government.”
“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,” Valoria said, adding that “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.”
Alvarez’s call on the House to probe the Tadeco-Bucor JVA and his filing of the graft charge against Rep. Floirendo was a surprise.
Both are from Davao del Norte and are long-time friends and political allies who backed the presidential bid of President Rodrigo Duterte.
In Davao del Norte, it is well-known that Alvarez’ politics had long been nurtured by the Floirendos.
Reports said that the fall-out between the two was sparked by the reported public quarrel between their two partners; and by rumors that Floirendo was behind a plot to replace the Speaker with former President now Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, which Floirendo had denied.
BUCOR TO REPLICATE TADECO-DAPECOL JVA IN IWAHIG PENAL COLONY
BY ROGER M. BALANZA