Floirendo may slap Alvarez with libel raps

MANILA, Philippines - Davao del Norte Rep. Antonio Floirendo Jr. is considering filing libel and other criminal charges against Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez for allegedly maligning him and his family.

A source in the Floirendo camp told reporters yesterday that the congressman’s lawyers were reviewing recordings of Alvarez’s radio and televison interviews on Thursday and Friday.

The lawyers will determine whether there is ground to file libel and other charges against the Speaker, he said.

He said the initial assessment in one radio interview is that Alvarez’s statements “were libelous,” he said.

He added that Floirendo trusts his lawyers to recommend the appropriation course of action he would take.

The Speaker has said he was ready for any consequence arising from his bitter quarrel with Floirendo.

In his radio-TV station-hopping on Thursday and Friday, Alvarez said the Floirendo family has profited tremendously from the lease of more than 5,000 hectares of prison lands in Davao del Norte by their Tagum Development Corp. (Tadeco), which has transformed the area into a banana plantation.

He said the Floirendos had made “tons of money” from the initial lease period during the Marcos regime and wanted to make more money when the contract was renewed in 2004 during the Arroyo administration.

He alleged that the government is losing P1 billion a year from the renewed deal or a total of P13 billion for the past 13 years.

The Speaker’s interviewers asked him who he thought was greedy – he or Floirendo – prodding him to comment on a statement issued on Wednesday by Floirendo’s live-in partner Cathy Binag.

“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 said.

In her statement posted on Facebook, Binag said there was 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 mature 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.

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 our people and I will just keep quiet. That’s not friendship.” He 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.

Earlier, Binag told The STAR that Alvarez’s wife Emily and their children “would always run to us whenever they have problems with the Speaker’s womanizing.”

While claiming he and Floirendo are still friends, Alvarez 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 claimed that he is exposing the allegedly anomalous Tadeco deal for “love of country.”

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 a 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.