Rep. Antonio Floirendo Jr., whose family owns the Anflo Group of Companies that include Tagum Agricultural Development Company Inc. and Pearl Farm Beach Resort, says he continues to support President Rodrigo Duterte despite the decision by the national hierarchy of PDP-Laban to expel the banana magnate from the administration’s political party.
Floirendo, the second of six children of the late ‘banana king’ Antonio Floirendo Sr., represents the second congressional district of Davao del Norte province. Anflocor, the Floirendo-owned conglomerate, has interests in various businesses in Mindanao. Tadeco, its flagship company, is a major exporter of fresh Cavendish bananas to Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, China and the Middle East.
Floirendo says in a statement that on Oct. 6, “the national hierarchy of the PDP-Laban, without due process as mandated under the party’s constitution and by-laws, issued an ‘immediate termination’ removing me from the group. But it is only now that I am coming out to refute the charges because news about this was released just recently,” he says.
”The letter cited three violations which were attributed to me without even asking in writing my side on the issues. Worse, they imputed against me certain partisan activities I did not even have a clue whatsoever, and accused me maliciously of disloyalty, sowing disunity and discord, and using media to air my grievances,” says Floirendo
Floirendo was served notice of expulsion from the party on the following grounds: disloyalty to the party and its leaders; organizing and participating in an unauthorized and unsanctioned party convention; and manifesting grievances to the public fora and media press releases instead of mandated mechanisms for settling internal disputes.
“For a party that has always embraced honorable policies, principles and philosophies that are democratic, legal, moral, and ethical, certainly the issuance of expulsion without even the accused person being given space and time to defend oneself is contrary to what the founders have preached and stood for. It is also notable that one of its present leaders has resorted to fabrication of stories and lies just to advance his interest and his personal crusade against me and my family,” according to Floirendo, without naming specific persons.
”Already at the tail-end of numerous false allegations by this individual who had benefitted avariciously from our family, my being accused of imagined transgressions violates the accepted rules on impartiality, which is what the Party has always fought for,” he says.
”Judging by the action of the signatories, it looks like the claws of authoritarianism has finally pierced the sacred ground the Party has zealously guarded against freebooters, car-petbaggers and opportunists,” he says.
”But despite this unstatesman-like demeanor of a few, let me just reiterate that my full support is still with our President and I shall keep within me the true ideals and virtues of PDP Laban,” says Floirendo.