The Floirendo family history

DAPECOL’S share enriched penal colony The Floirendo’s assets are real estate properties, business establishments, machinery, and investment funds.

When the Floirendo family signed a Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) with Dapecol in 1969, it was their money that developed the plantation, earning the penal colony the cash representing its shares.

Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez was yet to be born some ten years later when Don Antonio Floirendo Sr. founded the Mindanao Motors Corp. in 1947 and opened the Davao Motor sales on April 14, 1948.

Alvarez accused the Floirendos that they grabbed the land from the Bureau of Correction, specifically Dapecol. Wrong, it was the penal colony that offered their idle land to Tadeco for lack of logistics to develop a swampy area avoided by investors.

If indeed Don Antonio lacked the funding then, he would not have developed Dapecol into what it is now, a prosperous plantation that gets its share regularly from Tadeco.

Rep. Antonio “Tonyboy” Floirendo testified that the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor), Dapecol’s mother unit, earned P142.72 million last year, representing its share with Tadeco.

Alvarez said the Joint JVA was renewed due to the influence of Rep. Tonyboy Floirendo, thus the graft case filed by the Ombudsman. The truth is that under the JVA, there is a provision that allows Floirendo to extend the contract. When the contract was extended, Rep. Floirendo was not yet an official of Tadeco and his shares from the company were so negligible he had no say on its activities, especially on negotiations for the extension.

Alvarez said the Floirendos stole from the government and plundered the coffers due to the JVA extension. The Floirendo family did not steal anything from the government, truth be said, because the JVA contract had been confirmed several times as valid and legal.

No laws were violated by extending the JVA contract between Tadeco and Dapecol, most especially plunder, since the contract is a valid instrument that was signed and enforced by authorized agents of the government. The contract was recognized by the Department of Justice and Dapecol as most productive and has contributed much revenue to the government.