Totally relaxed when he showed up at a restaurant in Panabo City hours before he filed his candidacy for re-election on Thursday, Davao Del Norte 2nd district Rep. Antonio “Tonyboy” Floirendo was a picture of composure and ease as he mingled with friends and supporters.
For a while there, he reminded me of the old man and his namesake, Antonio Floirendo,Sr. during those few times Rene B. Lumawag (now the dean of Malacanang photographers) and I were invited to TADECO during occasions.
He had his father’s charms and wits, and was engaging to a fault. There was no hint of the lawmaker who for two years was at the receiving end of a systematic assault launched by former buddy and Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.
Recall how this former buddy lit up the fireworks and hogged the limelight by filing a graft case that accused Floirendo of conflict of interest on the ground that TonyBoy was still serving his second term in 2003 when the Tagum Agricultural Development Compoany and the Bureau of Correction renewed their joint venture agreement.
The contract, Alvarez claimed, proved disadvantageous to government.
No such thing, replied TADECO, because the agreement was not a lease agreement but a joint venture aimed at the rehabilitation of Davao Penal Colony inmates.
The TonyBoy that sat at our table acted like a long lost friend and gamely fielded the questions with accompanying gestures to prove his point.
He was not to be baited into firing broadsides at Alvarez but lamented the fact that the second district was kept in the dark when it was shut off congressional allotment, courtesy it is believed, of Alvarez.
He said the second district suffered as a result, not him.
This was the same lament hurled by Gov. Anthony del Rosario before a gathering of Davao del Norte village officials in Davao last year.
Then mention is made of how ‘King Richard and the Knights of the Round Table’ tried to ram through the 2019 national budget of P3.757 trillion, the amount of P55billion as pork barrel funds and the response was electric.
He was not denying or confirming but made it plain he was not part of the circle. For recall again that Alvarez made sure that Floirendo, despite being one of the major contributors to President Duterte’s candidacy, was not to chair any committee.
Instead, TonyBoy admitted the attempt continues to spark exchange of information among his colleagues to this day.
And that in fairness to GMA, she vowed to disperse the amount to all districts nationwide and ‘not to a few favored knights.’
From another source, the bulk of the insertion presumably was to have been distributed thusly: then ‘King Arthur’ in reference to Alvarez, P10Billion; Sir Rudolf in reference to Ilocos Norte 1st district Rep. Rodolfo Farinas, P10Billion; and sir Knight Templar in reference to Rep. Karlo Nograles, P7B and so on down the circle of loyal knights from 40 districts.
Alas and alack it was not to be after Majority leader Rolando Andaya stepped in as the spoiler. Andaya, who served as budget and management Secretary when Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was president, smelled a rat and was furious.
In the manner of a cross-examination, he confronted Nograles on the floor, sparking a heated exchange that reportedly almost led to Nograles losing his post as chair of the committee on appropriations.
Subsequent reports showed ‘lawmakers washing their hands off’ the P55 insertion as one broadsheet bannered it.
The reported quoted Alvarez as dismissing claims that he ordered the P55-billion insertion in the P3.757-trillion national budget under his leadership as House Speaker.
“I don’t know what they are talking about,” Alvarez said, adding that the insertion of some funds outside his district “does not make sense” in the first place.
Albay First District Rep. Edcel Lagman denied he was included in the list as one of those who would receive P1.29 billion exclusively for his district.
The report also added that in that heated exchange with Andaya, Nograles, also denied his inclusion in the parked funds.
He added that the insertion was “mere speculation,” and his committee has not approved such amount.
Later in another report, Nograles was reported as having ‘welcomed his chamber’s leaders’ decision to realign ) P 52 billion since it augmented funds of agencies whose funding had been cut by the DBM. The 2019 budget, he insisted, had no pork barrel funds.
In still another report, he was quoted as saying: “There is nothing to discuss. We did not approve such amount.”
True or false, this episode in the House of Representatives remains a hot topic to this day, where and whenever legislators get to gather. The reference to King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, believe you me, must have also come from one such gathering. (30)
