Tagum Agricultural Development Company Inc. said Tuesday its joint venture with the Bureau of Corrections is beneficial to the government and some 30,000 direct and indirect workers in the banana industry and other allied sectors.
Tadeco president and chief executive Alex Valoria defended the validity of the joint venture in a position paper to the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability and the Committee on Justice, clarifying the “erroneous allegations” made against the company.
Tadeco said the agreement bertween BuCor and the company aimed to help rehabilitate inmates at the Davao Prison and Penal Farm and prepare them for their eventual reintegration to society by providing them with a decent means of livelihood while serving their sentences.
Tadeco has developed a banana plantation inside the DPPF Reservation to achieve the goals.
“We respectfully would like to point out to our honorable lawmakers that the JVA is not only about money; the more important aspect to it is its core purpose of the rehabilitation of the inmates which has been a proven success,” Valoria said.
“The benefits to thousands of ex-inmates, their spouses and children, and finally to the communities they eventually settled into are immeasurable,” he added.
Davao del Norter Rep. Antonio Floirendo Jr. whose family owns Tadeco, did not attend the hearing as a member of the House justice committee “to obviate any perception of personal interference” on his part.
House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, who filed a House resolution calling for an investigation into the BuCor-Tadeco agreement, however, joined the meeting after figuring in a personal quarrel with Floirendo.
Valoria said the joint venture translates into the secure livelihood and future of at least 181,000 Filipinos.
Tadeco paid P438 Million in taxes and fees to the Philippine government in 2016 alone. BuCor, meanwhile, gets over P26,900 per hectare in profits and other payments from Tadeco, contrary to claims that BuCor was at the losing end of the deal.
“Last year 2016, Tadeco actually paid the BuCor a total of P142,719,662. This equates to P26,900 per hectare. We must emphasize that Tadeco paid to BuCor not only the guaranteed annual production and profit share but also the Inmates Farm Training Support, Stipend and Support Program and Training Subsidy. The financial benefits paid by Tadeco from 2004 to 2016 amounted P1,620,549,230,” Valoria said.