Photos take from Davao del Norte Representative Antonio Floirendo and Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez’s Facebook page (davaotoday.com)
DAVAO CITY, Philippines—Davao del Norte Representative Antonio Floirendo welcomed the graft case filed by Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez at the Office of the Ombudsman over a deal between the Bureau of Corrections and Floirendo-owned Tagum Development Corporation (Tadeco).
“I welcome this development,” Floirendo told reporters here on Thursday, September 21. He said that only the courts can resolve his case “definitely and with finality.”
“I am positive I shall be declared innocent in the end,” Floirendo said.
On September 18, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales approved the 11-page resolution recommending that Floirendo will be criminally charged before the Sandiganbayan after it found sufficient evidence that he violated the provisions of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
Based on the resolution, Floirendo violated Section 3(h) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
Morales indicted Floirendo because he committed a grave offense when he actually owned a share of P7.5 million in Tadeco during the time when it renewed the joint venture agreement with the BuCor.
A 5,308.36-hectare of land at the Davao Penal Colony was leased to Tadeco which was converted into a banana plantation. Apart from Floirendo’s shares in Tadeco, he also owned 537,950 shares in the listed parent company of Tadeco—the Anflo Management and Investment Corporation.
The Ombudsman also noted that Floirendo likely violated Art. VI, Section 14, of the 1987 Constitution which bars members of the Congress to be directly or indirectly involved in a contract with financial interests, or in any franchise or special privilege, granted by the government or any of its agencies, during their term of office.
“The argument is unavailing as he is charged under the second mode of Sec. 3(H) of RA 3019 in which mere prohibition by the Constitution or by law of financial interest in a contract suffices,” the resolution
said.(davaotoday.com)
