THE Supreme Court (SC) has acquitted former Davao del Norte Representative Antonio Floirendo Jr. from the graft charges he was earlier convicted of by the Sandiganbayan.
According to the January 23, 2023 ruling, which was only published to the media on April 2, reverses the decision of the Sandiganbayan saying he should not be held liable for having “nominal shareholding” in the banana plantation company that has entered into a contract with a government entity.
The mere holding of an interest in a corporation to whom a contract was granted by the Government is enough to put a member of Congress within the purview of the constitutional prohibition cannot be accepted by the High Court, the SC said.
It added, “the Constitution must not have envisioned such a myopic view, for members of Congress would be at the mercy of the Anti-Graft Law for their nominal shareholdings in just about any corporation in whose favor the Government has actually granted and will in the future grant contracts to, even without doing any act in relation to, nor benefitting from, the same.”
In a criminal charge sheet filed with the Sandiganbayan, the Office of the Ombudsman accused Floirendo of “willfully, unlawfully and criminally have direct and/or indirect financial interest in the May 21, 2003 Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) between the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) and Tagum Agricultural Development Company, Inc. (Tadeco), in which company he then owned 75,000 shares of stocks worth P7.5 million and which company's (Tadeco) majority stocks were in turn owned by and under the control of accused's family through Anflo Management and Investment Corporation, despite being prohibited by Article VI, Section 14 of the 1987 Constitution from having such financial interest.”
In a Sandiganbayan decision ruled on August 26, 2020, Floirendo was found “guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of violation of Section 3(h) of Republic Act No. 3019 for having a direct or indirect financial interest in the 2003 JVA, such interest being prohibited under Article VI, Section 14 of the 1987 Constitution.”
“While members of the House of Representatives are not prohibited from having a direct or indirect financial interest per se, they are, however, prohibited from having a direct or indirect financial interest in any contract with the Government during the representative's term of office,” the anti-graft court ruled.
It pointed out that Floirendo Jr. should have divested his shareholdings in Tadeco and in Anflo Management and Investment Corporation (Anflocor), a corporation owned by the Floirendos, which was engaged in investing and managing the operations of the Anflo Group of Companies, which included Tadeco.
Floirendo was sentenced to a prison term ranging from six years and one month as minimum to eight years as maximum with perpetual disqualification from holding public office.
It was in 1969 when TADECO and BuCor entered into a joint venture agreement on the development of 3,000 hectares within the Davao Prison and Penal Farm in Davao del Norte into a banana plantation.
The said JVA was amended in 1979 and was signed by then Tadeco’s chairperson Antonio O. Floirendo Sr. and then BuCor officer-in-charge Ramon J. Liwag and approved by then Justice Secretary Simeon Datumanong.
In 2003, the agreement was renewed for another 25 years. At the time of the renewal of the agreement in 2003, Floirendo was Davao del Norte’s Second district congressman.
Floirendo told the court that he is not an incorporator of Tadeco which was incorporated in 1950 before his birth; and that he owns about 0.89 percent of Tadeco's total outstanding shares which he acquired between 1977 to 1996; that he had no involvement in the negotiation and execution of the 2003 JVA; and that he was neither the company's director nor officer; and that the House of Representatives had no participation in the review or approval of the 2003 JVA.
The SC said that in convicting Floirendo Jr., the Sandiganbayan banked on the 2003 JVA's provisions on production and profit sharing.
“It hastily concluded that because Tadeco and BuCor entered into the 2003 JVA with the objective of obtaining profits therefrom, then automatically, Floirendo Jr. was financially interested in the 2003 JVA by simply owning 75,000 shares in Tadeco and 537,950 shares in Anflocor,” the SC ruling stated.
“In other words, the Sandiganbayan considered mere ownership of shares of stocks on the part of Floirendo Jr. to conclude that he has a financial interest in the 2003 JVA. For sheer lack of evidence to prove that Floirendo Jr. was financially interested in the 2003 JVA, the Sandiganbayan casually declared that Floirendo Jr. never denied his financial interest in the 2003 JVA. This is unfounded,” the SC said.
The High Court ruling stated that “in no instance did the prosecution present evidence that Floirendo Jr. obtained a monetary gain or benefit when the 2003 JVA was entered into with the government. In fact, Floirendo Jr. has consistently testified that he had no involvement in the negotiation of the 2003 JVA.”
The SC said that if they were to give its imprimatur to the Sandiganbayan's conviction, “then it would open the floodgates to abusive prosecutions through speculations and surmises.”
The graft complaint against Floirendo was filed with the Office of the Ombudsman in 2017 by then House Speaker and current Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez, who had a falling out with Floirendo.
In a previous report, Alvarez made public his complaint against Floirendo on the same day that he filed House Resolution (HR) Number 867, seeking a congressional inquiry into the JVA between BuCor and Tadeco.
Alvarez has not yet issued any statement in relation to the matter.