Probe of missing ice makers pushed

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has transmitted to the Office of the Ombudsman the request from a militant fisherfolk group for a probe into the case of the allegedly “missing” ice making machines supposedly bought for more than P455 million by the Department of Agriculture in 2009.

De Lima also directed the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to conduct its own probe into the case of the case which is the subject of a plunder suit that the  Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) brought against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap and 13 other people with the Ombudsman in 2010.

Pamalakaya claimed that the purchase of the 98 ice-making machines was overpriced by P2.3 million per unit, costing the taxpayers at least P455 million. It claimed that 97 of the 98 ice-making machines were still unaccounted for.

According to De Lima, the Ombudsman was the appropriate government agency to act on Pamalakaya’s request for an investigation “considering that the case has already been filed” with the antigraft body.