FAST BACKWARD: A reservation, not an alienable land (2)

In the decades to come, the original joint venture agreement (JVA) would undergo several amendments. On July 10, 1973, two new significant provisions were introduced, namely: (i) the appointment of a representative from the prisons bureau to be part of the Tadeco management team and (ii) the use of colony inmates or prisoners, including those who have completed their sentences, as workers in line with BuCor’s mandate to rehabilitate prisoners. Under this new implementing agreement, the BuCor gave Tadeco another 1,000 hectares for cultivation under the 1969 JVA.

Between 1975 and 1979, three more adjustments were made in the JVA. On March 21, 1975, a supplemental contract was signed, which allowed Tadeco to cultivate an additional 500 hectares for rice, corn, and sorghum farms. Three years later, on July 17, 1978, an addendum was signed adding 100 hectares from the Kapalong sub-colony for banana farming, and another 95 hectares from the Panabo sub-colony for planting of rice, corn, sorghum, and other grains.

Moreover, on February 8, 1979, another supplement was signed, this time giving Tadeco additional 750 to 800 hectares for cultivation as a banana farm subject the conditions already stipulated in the original JVA signed. That same year, the 1969 agreement was extended by another twenty-five (25) years.

A decade later, on the recommendation of then justice, now labor, Secretary Silvestre Bello III, BuCor and Tadeco signed a consolidated joint venture agreement (CJVA) on July 11, 1989, covering 5,212.46 hectares. Six years later, both parties agreed to an addendum expanding he area of coverage under the merged JVA to 5,284.98. Under the renewed JVA signed on May 21, 2003, the hectarage under the CJVA was expanded to 5,308.36, the present coverage.

Since the 1973 Implementing Agreement was introduced in the 1969 BuCor-Tadeco joint venture agreement (JVA), the issue of rehabilitating prisoners while serving sentence inside the Davao Prison and Penal Farm (Dapecol) was already a key proviso in the partnership. In which case, the parties involved agreed to adopt two new elements in the contract.

First, the BuCor was imbued with the task to prevent the illegal entry or trespass of squatters, or unauthorized settlers, and with the “full cooperation” of Tadeco to take legal actions, either by ejectment or prosecution, against the violators. This provision, in part, takes into account the role the private company plays in ensuring the territorial integrity of the penal colony is not undermined by unwarranted incursions.

And, second, the BuCor, to safeguard it from any form of monetary risks or fiscal disincentives, has no obligation when it comes to contributing funds for the development of the farms but only allow the cultivation of its land assets in return for emolument, services, and any assistance that redound to the uplift of the colony and the rehabilitation of its inmates.

An overlooked aspect of the JVA is that it’s not just a simple government contract; in fact, it is an accord that, in recent decades, has been contemplated for replication in other penal colonies throughout the archipelago. But the absence of a cooperative partner and the huge investment involved in achieving what the BuCor-Tadeco deal has achieved, have virtually made the planned duplication a must-do aspiration for the government.

There were, in the past, efforts to denigrate or put down the JVA.  In 1970, the transaction was scrutinized by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee following issues of legal technicality. But the chair of the committee, in answering the question if the contract “really partake of a joint venture relationship”, was clear in saying “we would not have approved the Bureau of Prisons-Tadeco contract if it did not clearly create a joint venture relationship between the parties.”

In support of the agreement and in answer to the question on the authority of national officials to make contract, then justice secretary Ponce-Enrile, on September 11, 1970, cited a Supreme Court decision which said “the acts of the secretaries of such (executive) departments, performed and promulgated in the regular course of business, are, unless disapproved or reprobated by the Chief Executive, presumptively the acts of the Chief Executive.”

Prior to the ascendancy of President Rodrigo Duterte, the JVA had already benefitted 4,945 inmates, including seasonal hires, who were assigned to work in the desilting of the plantation drainage, trained to handle the packing of premium and export-grade bananas, and taught the skills to earn a livelihood as part of their future reintegration in society.

The rehabilitation by employment administered under the contract has also contributed to the minimization of unrest inside the penal colony, has contributed to the strengthening of personal relationships between inmates and their families, has promoted values formation as preparatory steps towards life after sentence, and has validated the philosophy that rehabilitation as part of “restorative justice” is better than the concept of “retributive justice.”

As of 2016, the JVA had contributed to the National Treasury PhP295 million in fees and taxes, paid a total of PhP142.7 million for the inmates’ farm training support, stipend, and training subsidy, and generated over 30,000 job placements in direct, indirect, and ancillary engagements, which mean livelihood, food on the table, and secure future for close to 200 individuals. From 2004 to 2016, the total amount the JVA had paid for inmates’ rehabilitation, guaranteed production share, and profit share has already reached PhP1.62 billion!