House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez has filed graft charges against a fellow Davao congressman over the alleged failure of the latter to divest his shares of stocks in a banana company which has an existing contract with the Bureau of Corrections (BUCOR).
In a criminal complaint filed with the Office of the Ombudsman, Alvarez said Antonio Floirendo, Jr. of the second district of Davao del Norte is prohibited by law and the Constitution to enter into any business transaction with the government.
Alvarez said the respondent and his family have been the owner of Tagum Agricultural Development Corporation (TADECO) when it entered into a joint venture agreement (JVA) with BUCOR in 1969.
The JVA allowed the lease of a wide area of the land Davao Penal Colony land for banana planting for export with BUCOR getting a share from earnings.
Alvarez said his complaint specifically centered when the JVA was renewed in 2003 while the respondent was serving his second term as representative of Davao del Norte.
“There was absolutely no evidence that when the consolidated JVA was renewed in 2003, he (Floirendo) divested himself of his ownership of his shares of stocks in TADECO and Anflo Management and Investment Corporation (ANFLOCOR),” Alvarez said.
Floirendo allegedly also owned a shares of stocks in ANFLOCOR, the mother company of TADECO.
Alvarez said the renewal of the JVA allowed TADECO to continue using the more than 5,300 hectares of the penal colony land for the continued banana production and export operations.
The complainant said the constitutional ban applies squarely to the respondent, as BUCOR is a government office which signed the lease contract. (JUN RAMIREZ)