SPEAKER Pantaleon Alvarez wants the Justice department to declare “illegal” the joint-venture agreement between the Bureau of Corrections and the Davao-based Tagum Agricultural Development Company Inc., but Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre said Tuesday it was not within his powers to issue such a declaration.
He made the statement at a congressional hearing even as the joint House committees on good government and public accountability and justice started its probe into the deal that led to the severing of the ties between Alvarez and Davao del Norte Rep. Antonio Floirendo Jr.
Floirendo on Tuesday said he respected the decision of the House leadership to remove him as vice chairman of the House contingent to the Commission on Appointments.
“From the very beginning, my Commission on Appointments position was at the behest of the Lower House leadership,” Floirendo said in a statement.
“If the House leadership deems me as no longer needed in the CA post, so be it.”
Floirendo said his post at the commission was the least of his concerns.
“After all, it is the people of my congressional district that is my utmost priority over anything else,” he said.
Aguirre made his statement even as Tadeco president and chief executive Alex Valoria said not only was the JVA between the company and the Bureau of Corrections valid and legal, it had also been highly beneficial to the government and to some 30,000 direct and indirect workers in the banana industry and other related sectors.
Valoria told lawmakers the BuCor-Tadeco JVA was legal and constitutional and disputed the “erroneous allegations made against the company.”
Aguirre said it was only the President who could declare the joint venture canceled as his department could only recommend that the deal be rescinded.
“Actually, in the letter which we received from Speaker Alvarez, they are asking us to declare more or less the contract as illegal. I believe that we could not do it. The DoJ, the secretary of Justice cannot do it,” Aguirre said.
“I believe it is the President who could declare this as illegal and cancel the contract immediately. However, if the President would not tackle this, then we are going to make a recommendation to BuCor that they should institute appropriate action.”
Aguirre said Tadeco employed thousands of workers and its positive impact extended beyond its direct employees because “thousands of families” were benefiting as well from Tadeco’s operations. He also said that Tadeco was paying hundreds of millions of pesos in taxes to the government.
The JVA forged between BuCor and Tadeco primarily aims to help rehabilitate the inmates at the Davao Prison and Penal Farm and prepare them for their eventual reintegration in 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 realize these 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.”