Former House Speaker Davao del Norte 1st District Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez said he owes his election to Congress in 2016 to voters and not to the Del Rosarios and 2nd District Rep. Antonio Floirendo, Jr.
Who voted me as congressman? Them or the voters? No single person can put you in that position except the voters, said Alvarez in a radio interview.
Alvarez said this even as he has publicly admitted earlier that his win in the 2016 congressional race was supported by Floirendo and Governor Anthony del Rosario and his father former governor Rodolfo del Rosario.
Alvarez won in 2016, after two previous debacles in the 1st District congressional races where he was not supported by Floirendo and the del Rosarios.
Some quarters have described Alvarez as a “snake in the grass” for going up against his former benefactors.
People of Davao del Norte are well aware about how the del Rosarios and Floirendo in 2016 brought back Alvarez from his political grave by helping him, financially and politically, win the election.
Alvarez, who first won a Congress seat in the 1998 election, had practically disappeared from the province’s political landscape since abandoning his congressional post in 2001 to take on a short-lived stint as transport secretary of then President Gloria-Macapagal-Arroyo, and since being clobbered by opponents in his comeback bids in the 2010 and 2013 elections.
He resurfaced as part of then Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s presidential campaign and was named as Speaker of the House of Representatives with Duterte winning the presidency. Alvarez, however, would be ousted two years later and replaced by former President now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in a coup on July 2018.
Interviewed on ABS/CBN Davao on Monday morning, November 12 in the Banat program, anchorman Jun Bersamin asked Alvarez to react to accusations that he is “walay batasan, walay utang na loob (Without manners, without gratitude).”
After breaking up ties with the del Rosarios and Floirendo, Alvarez is going to war with his former allies and benefactors in the 2019 mid-term election.
For the elections in May next year, Alvarez has organized a political bloc, the Alvarez Wing, against the Floirendo- and Del Rosario-led Hugpong Ng Pagbabago (HNP), a regional political party formed by presidential daughter Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio.
Alvarez’s reelection is being contested by Gov. del Rosario, while Floirendo will be facing off in the 2nd District race with Vice Governor Alan Dujali of the Alvarez Wing. Alvarez has also fielded his personal assistant, virtual unknown Edwin Jubahib in the gubernatorial race against HNP’s Rodney del Rosario, the governor’s older brother.
In the interview, Bersamin hinted that Alvarez has forgotten the word gratitude as Alvarez is now ranged against his former benefactors who helped him in the past to win an election.
“Mentalidad sa pamulitika nga ikaw ang agalon (That’s the mentality of politicians who think they are the master),” Alvarez said, referring to the del Rosarios and Floirendo.
“Kinsa nagbutang (sa akoa) as congressman? Sila ba o ang katawhan? (Who voted me as congressman? Them or the voters?),” Alvarez said.
“No single person can put you in that position except the voters,” he adds.
While admitting he was helped by his former allies and benefactrors, Alvarez claims the help was not crucial to his winning.
“Ang support ok pero pila lang ka boto (There was support but it amounted to only a few votes),” he said.
I could not have won if people did not like it. Utang ko naa sa botante (My gratitude is to the voters),” said Alvarez.
Up against the formidable and tested political machinery of the del Rosario-Floirendo combine, observers are giving Alvarez and his Alvarez Wing no chance to make it in the coming polls.
Further, Alvarez’s fate appears to be sealed in doom, with Mayor Duterte-Carpio and the HNP throwing support to del Rosario and Floirendo.
The presidential daughter has called Alvarez an “asshole” and vowed to campaign against his reelection, after the then Speaker said HNP was an “opposition party” organized by Mayor Duterte-Carpio without the blessing of President Duterte.
It is reported that Mayor Duterte-Carpio was among those who were behind the ouster of Alvarez as Speaker, which was confirmed by no less than President Duterte.
Rep. Antonio “Tonyboy” Floirendo on Monday filed his Certificate of Candidacy (COC) in his reelection bid for Davao del Norte’s Second District.
Running under the banner of the Hugpong Ng Pagbabago (HNP), Floirendo will be up against a token rival in Vice Governor Alan Dujali.
Dujali, a former political ally of Floirendo, has pitched camp with the Alvarez Wing that was organized by First District Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez as a local political bloc under the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino/Lakas ng Bayan (PDP/Laban).
Floirendo’s filing of his reelection bid on October 11, the start of filing of COCs mandated by the Commission on Election (Comelec), comes as the first shot fired by the HNP, a regional party formed by presidential daughter Davao City Mayor Sara “Inday” Duterte-Carpio, in its coming battle against the Alvarez Wing in the 2019 mid-term election.
The reelectionist Alvarez, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives and secretary general of the PDP/Laban, is a former political ally who has broken ties with Floirendo.
The Alvarez Wing will be fielding a full slate against Mayor Duterte-Carpio’s HNP in the coming Davao del Norte contest.
“MEDUSA CAMPAIGN”
The camp of Floirendo, reports said, has also launched “Medusa Campaign, ” a special operations project to thwart the reelection bid of Alvarez.
The campaign is named after the cruel goddess Medusa who had snakes as her hair who was killed by Perseus in Greek mythology.
Accordingly, Medusa Campaign will have Floirendo and his political machinery expanding outside of Floirendo’s Second District to Alvarez’s First District to frustrate the return to Congress of the former Speaker who was ousted in a coup in July and replaced by former President now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Alvarez has a ton of blood debts to Floirendo.
As the sitting Speaker, Alvarez hounded Floirendo with a graft case in the Ombudsman; initiated a House inquiry into the Floirendo-owned Tagum Agricultural Development Company (Tadeco); removed Floirendo from membership in House committees; and reportedly deleted congressional budget for Floirendo’s district.
The soured relationship between Floirendo and Alvarez reportedly was sparked by a public quarrel between their respective girlfriends.
The return to civilian life of Alvarez after the 2019 May contest is already written in the wall.
The ragtag team of the Alvarez Wing is up against the formidable machineries of the HNP, Floirendo and his cousin Governor Anthony del Rosario.
Mayor Duterte-Carpio, HNP chairman, has also vowed to campaign against the former Speaker.
HNP has yet to bare its slate, but reports say that it will field either Gov. del Rosario or his father former governor Rodolfo “Dolfo” del Rosario against Alvarez.
The Alvarez Wing is fielding a virtual unknown, contractor Edwin Jubahib, Alvarez’s special assistant, in the race for Governor against HNP’s Gov. del Rosario or the elder del Rosario.
In the race for vice governor, Alvarez Wing has former Tagum City mayor Rey Chong Uy, who has shied away from contesting the reelection of Tagum City Mayor Allan Rellon, who defeated Uy in 2016. HNP reportedly is positioning Board Member Roy Catalan against Uy.
House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez emerged the cellar dweller with his satisfaction rating down to a record-low of +1, in results of the latest survey by Social Weather Station (SWS).
Alvarez suffered a 13-point decline, his rating dropping from +14 in December 2017 to a “neutral” +1 in March 2018.
The face-to-face survey conducted March 23 to 27 involved interviews of 1,200 adults nationwide.
In Davao del Norte, the survey results was welcomed by the camp of 2nd District Congressman Antonio “Tonyboy” Floirendo, Jr.
It fits the character of the Speaker, said the Floirendo camp in a one-line statement sent out by text message to radio broadcasters.
Alvarez, who represents the province’s 1st District, has filed a graft rap against Floirendo and instigated a House probe into the Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) between the Floirendo-owned Tagum Agricultural Development Company (Tadeco) and the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) over the Davao Penal Colony (Dapecol) reservation area.
Tadeco developed the once-barren 5,300-hectare Dapecol land into a banana plantation that provides large income to government and thousands of jobs.
House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez blew his top as an official of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) spurned his order to re-open to public use farm roads inside the Tagum Agricultural Development Company (Tadeco) farms in Davao del Norte, on Tuesday, March 20.
At the joint hearing by the House committee on justice and the committee on good governance and public accountability, Alvarez ordered Davao Penal Colony (Dapecol) Superintendent Gerardo Padilla to “re-open” the roads to public use.
Saying that he could not follow the Speaker’s order, Padilla told Alvarez that only the Davao del Norte provincial government and the Department of Agriculture can order the re-opening.
Angered by the response, Alvarez accused Padilla of “ gross ignorance.”
“You know Mr. Padilla, you are displaying your gross ignorance. Paano ka ba naging director diyan? Ito simple lang ito, isipin mo ganyan yung takbo ng utak mo,” Alvarez snapped at the chief of Dapecol, a line agency of BuCor.
Not content with his insulting verbal attack, Alvarez also recommended to the House committees the transfer of Padilla for “gross ignorance of his duties and responsibilities.”
The hearing is the fifth on a House resolution initiated by Alvarez on the Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) between Tadeco and BuCor involving about 5,300 hectares of the Dapecol reservation area.
Alvarez is a former friend and political ally of Floirendo. The Speaker’s move to question the JVA is widely criticizedin Davao del Norte.
Alvarez alleged the JVA is “unconstitutional and disadvantageous to the government.”
The JVA was first signed in 1969 with its renewal approved by the President and Congress.
The JVA allowed Tadeco to develop the Dapecol reservation area into a banana plantation, with BuCor earning shares from the production of exportable Cavendish bananas.
Tadeco has also hired as farm hands prisoners serving term in the penal colony, as part of rehabilitation program for the inmates.
On top of the inquiry into the JVA, Alvarez has also sought the “re-opening” of the farm roads alleging that Tadeco barred public passage.
Tadeco denied Alvarez’s claim saying that the public enjoys free passage through the farm roads.
Tadeco President Alexander Valoria told the hearing that bio-security measures have been adopted in the farm to protect bananas against diseases.
Tadeco has installed checkpoints and foot baths and tire dips at the entrance to the farm as ordered by the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI).
In 2012, BPI, an agency of the Department of Agriculture, issued Department Order No. 1, ordering banana plantations to install checkpoints and anti-pest measures to protect against spread of Panama Disease (Fusarium Wilt), which then was attacking bananas. The order remains to this day with the deadly root-disease continuing to be a major threat to the banana industry.
The BPI order was backed by the Davao del Norte capitol with a resolution of support.
The BPI order and the capitol resolution were the legal instruments invoked by PPadilla in shooting down Alvarez’s order to “re-open” the roads inside the Tadeco farm.
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