Speaker: Tonyboy a greedy thief

MANILA, Philippines -  The feud between Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and Davao del Norte Rep. Antonio “Tonyboy” Floirendo Jr. has degenerated into name-calling, with the former describing his erstwhile friend as greedy and a thief.

In radio interviews yesterday and on Thursday night, Alvarez claimed that Floirendo’s family had made “tons of money” from their company’s lease of more than 5,000 hectares of prison lands in their province, which they transformed into a profitable banana plantation during the Marcos regime.

“When the deal was renewed in 2004, they still wanted to make a lot of money because the contract of renewal was grossly disadvantageous to the government,” he said.

He said the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor), which owns the property leased to the Floirendos’ Tagum Development Corp. (Tadeco), is losing P1 billion a year from the contract.

He said the government has already lost P13 billion since the Tadeco contract renewal 13 years ago.

Alvarez alleged that the Floirendo company is paying BuCor P5,000 per hectare per year, plus P1.30 per box of bananas harvested from the plantation.

“They are the ones who are greedy. They were already benefitting from it immensely during the Marcos regime, and now, they still want to make more money. What do you call that? Isn’t that greed? Meanwhile, there are a lot of Filipinos suffering from poverty,” he added.

Alvarez made the allegations in response to the Facebook statement of Cathy Binag, Floirendo’s live-in partner, that there is a deeper reason for the two Davao del Norte congressmen’s feud.

It’s not her altercation with the Speaker’s girlfriend, whom she identified as Jennifer Maliwanag Vicencio, during the Masskara festival in Bacolod City last October, she said.

“I find it petty for matured men to be burning bridges of friendship over a girls’ spat. It all boils down to greed. Greed for wealth, power and influence,” Binag said.

She later posted a second statement in which she deleted this particular paragraph about greed.

Alvarez said it’s not he who is greedy. “What greed are they talking about? I have no contract with the government. That statement boomeranged on them. That’s the problem, because it was written by a PR (public relations practitioner). Even she could not understand what it meant,” he said.

In another interview, the Speaker claimed that Binag did not even read her statement.

“They did not read it. You know, the start of the statement, it’s clear that’s not the language of an ordinary… ordinary high school graduate. Maybe, she did not even graduate from…” he said.

The first paragraph of Binag’s Facebook post read: “The unfurling of events that dragged my name is unfortunate. Let me make it clear that my earlier statement that the problem between my partner, Rep. Tonyboy Floirendo Jr., and his erstwhile friend Speaker Bebot Alvarez started with me and the Speaker’s girlfriend, Jennifer Maliwanag Vicencio, is true.

“It’s true that I had an altercation with Miss Vicencio during the opening of the Masskara Festival in Bacolod late last year. From then on, things spiraled out of control and one thing led to another,” she said.

Asked whether he still considers Floirendo his friend, Alvarez said, “Yes, of course. But our friendship does not mean that he has a license to steal from the nation and I will just keep quiet. That’s not friendship.”

He said he and Floirendo last talked to each other in December.

“He doesn’t have to talk to me. He should explain the Tadeco deal to the nation – why the government is losing billions from it and why they are making a lot of money. The personal matters in this issue, we can talk about those in the parlor. That is parlor stuff,” he said.

He admitted that he hasn’t brought the Tadeco deal to the attention of President Duterte but said he is sure the Chief Executive would not allow a contract that is disadvantageous to the government.

Asked why he is making noise about the 13-year-old transaction only now, the Speaker said it was because it was only recently that he obtained a copy of the contract from Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre ll.

“In the past, they kept this contract secret. The last Congress did an investigation but was unable to obtain a copy of the contract. The deal was already found disadvantageous to the government before, but the Floirendos were able to hold on to it because they were close to the powers-that-be,” he said.

He said the Floirendos, who are billionaires, made their wealth largely from the Tadeco banana farm.

He added that the President has not inquired about his feud with Floirendo, who contributed P100 million to then candidate Duterte’s election campaign. 

A colleague, meanwhile, has voiced support for his call for an investigation into Floirendo’s firm.

“Yes, the House needs to look into this issue,” Rep. Antonio Tinio of party-list group Alliance of Concerned Teachers said. But he said he does not support the decision of Alvarez to file a graft complaint against Floirendo “at this time” pending the results of the inquiry.

Aside from filing a graft case against his former friend with the Office of the Ombudsman, the Speaker introduced in the House a resolution calling for an inquiry into the Tadeco contract.