DOJ creates panel to review BuCor-TADECO deal

A six-man panel from the Department of Justice will review the land deal between the Bureau of Corrections and banana firm Tagum Agricultural Development Company Inc., which is owned by the family of Davao Del Norte Rep. Antonio Floirendo Jr. 

Chief State Counsel Ricardo Paras III leads the fact-finding committee Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II has created upon the request of House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, who said that the deal should be declared null and void for alleged infirmities. 

Among the members of the panel are Director Maria Charina Buena Dy-Po (vice chairman, technical staff), State Counsel Precious Pojas (legal staff), State Counsel Melvin Suarez (legal staff), State Counsel Noel Adriatico (technical staff), and Atty. Catherine Angela Maralit (technical staff). 

Aguirre said the committee would focus on the alleged irregularity of the agreement and the consequent disadvantages it brought to the government. 

"Thereafter a report shall be submitted indicating the appropriate measures and the proper legal remedies to be undertaken in order to protect the interest of the government," the justice chief said in a letter to Alvarez, to whom the probe's report will be submitted. 

The contract involves the joint venture agreement entered into by the banana firm TADECO with the BuCor for the lease of 5,308.36 hectares of the Davao Prison and Penal Farm in Panabo City for the banana plantation.

Signed in 1969, the contract was renewed in 1979 and further extended to another 25 years ending in May 2003, with a guaranteed annual BuCor production share of P26,541,809, plus a mandatory increase of 10 percent every five years.

The BuCor, an attached agency of the DOJ, would also get windfall earning from TADECO's banana exports.

Alvarez, however, said the agreement was entered “without legal basis and authority,” arguing that under existing laws, national government agencies may not enter into a JVA (joint-venture agreement) with private firms.

“When the subject JVA was executed in 2003, there was as yet no specific rule or regulation authorizing BuCor to execute a JVA with a private entity,” Alvarez said.

“This being so, the act of renewing the former JVA was purposely done in manifest bad faith to avoid the proper and lawful bidding process,” he added.

Alvarez also said the agreement was "grossly disadvantageous" to the government since it was based on the "low lease rates" of around P5,000 per hectare per year, compared to the prevailing lease rates of P25,000 per hectare per year of underdeveloped land in the same area.

He also accused Floirendo of violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (Republic Act 3019) which prohibits government officials from having financial interests in government contracts.

Floirendo was already a representative of the second district of Davao del Norte when the contract was renewed in 2003.

He was also a stockholder of TADECO, a subsidiary of Anflo Management and Investment Corporation (ANFLOCOR) during that time, Alvarez said.

Alvarez has already charged Floirendo with graft before the Office of the Ombudsman over the latter's links to TADECO. 

Alvarez and Floirendo are key allies of President Rodrigo Duterte.

But a rift in the Alvarez-Floirendo friendship was brought out to public attention when on March 30, Alvarez's daughter Finance Undersecretary Paola Alvarez broke her silence on the relationship that has soured up. —LBG, GMA News