Tadeco denies muddling issues on deal with BuCor

Tagum Agricultural Development Co. (Tadeco), the country’s leading banana exporter, clarified yesterday that it is not muddling the issues surrounding its contract with the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor).

“While we maintain the deal with BuCor is a Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) and the contract was legally negotiated, we take care not to muddle the issues as we only want to present arguments that are accurate, rational and valid,” company president Alex Valoria said in a statement.

He said he was issuing the statement to correct “claims that the company has been suggesting that the House leadership has coerced three government agencies, which declared illegal the JVA.”

These agencies are the Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of the Solicitor General and Commission on Audit.

“We base our arguments on the approvals of the government authorities at the time the JVA was executed and the applicable laws and jurisprudence. This is a consensual arrangement, which has stood the test of time. We involve ourselves only in honest business dealings, not in bogus claims,” Valoria said.

“It is not the mission of our organization that is recognized for its best practices to muddle in propaganda issues because it is contrary to our corporate values to malign and mislead, or argue issues without legal basis,” he said.

He said Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre III has admitted that the renewal of the JVA between the BuCor and Tadeco in 2004 “had the stamp of approval of two secretaries of the DOJ, which validates Tadeco’s position that the new 25-year period of the contract will extend up to 2029.”

He recalled that Aguirre has told the House hearing on the transaction that while the signatory to the JVA renewal was then justice undersecretary Ramon Liwag, it was then secretary Simeon Datumanong who approved it.

A subsequent review was done on the JVA and the resulting addendum to the agreement was again approved by then DOJ secretary Raul Gonzales, he quoted Aguirre as saying.

Alvarez has insisted that the deal between Tadeco and Bucor is a lease that is prohibited by the Constitution and the law.

He said Valoria has admitted that the banana exporter paid BuCor last year more than P142 million in “rental.”

“If they paid rent, then that is a lease. They called it a joint venture agreement to go around the prohibition in the Constitution and the law,” he said.