Tadeco: Nothing remiss in contract with gov’t

Tagum Agricultural Development Co. Inc. (Tadeco) welcomed the call for a review of its joint venture agreement with the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor), saying it has always been transparent in its obligations.

The contract, which states that the government would get a guaranteed payment of P26.542 million per year for allowing the use of the Davao Penal Colony’s 5,308 hectares of land, has been the subject of criticisms. The Davao banana exporter is owned by President Duterte’s supposed biggest campaign financier.

Tadeco president Alex N. Valoria said in a statement that since 2012, the lease contract has been the subject of three hearings by the committee on agrarian reform at the House of Representatives. The executive department has also conducted its own reviews, he said.

The Tadeco chief said the result of the first review in 2012 already stated that the joint venture was in order and that it was important to the government.

Citing position papers from the BuCor and its parent agency, the Department of Justice (DOJ), Valoria said Tadeco was described as “contribut(ing) to the DOJ/Bucor and [providing] trainings and incomes to the latter’s inmates.”

He said the joint venture had benefited about 3,500 inmates every year with an average daily deployment of about 1,000 inmates under the Inmates Farm and Training and Exposure Program.

The joint venture resulted in about P1.6 billion in financial benefits until 2016, about P15.4 million in fixed program assistance during the period, P3.831 million in infrastructure assistance and P2.2 million in other forms of assistance, he said.

“On employment generation, the joint venture created about 18,580 jobs for inmates and other workers and resulted in about P3.1 billion in annual salaries,” Valoria said.

According to Tadeco data, the government received in 2014 about P33-million guaranteed production share and P8.6-million share in profits.

In 2016, the guaranteed production share of the government increased to P35.3 million, while profit share went up to P9.5 million.