MANILA, Philippines―The Ombudsman missed an awful lot of information about Gumersindo Lasam, including one right under its nose.

Lasam was twice awarded the presidential Lingkod Bayan Award and in fact was cleared by the Ombudsman to receive the award, officials said Wednesday as they vouched for his integrity.

The Ombudsman recently recommended the filing of plunder charges against the agriculture executive director of Region II, among many others, over the P728-million fertilizer fund scam without knowing he was killed on April 2009.

Lasam was the recipient of the Lingkod Bayan Award, the most prestigious presidential award to a public servant, in September 1994 and posthumously in September 2009, according to Civil Service Commission Director Ma. Luisa Salonga-Agamata.

As part of the administrative requirements for the award, Ombudsman investigation officer Lourdes Paloma-Salazar issued a clearance on May 4, 2009, certifying that Lasam had no pending criminal or administrative cases as of April 27 that year, she said.

Besides, nobody came forward to file any derogatory statement against Lasam after the CSC ran print and broadcast announcements about the semifinalists for the award, and dispatched a team to do an intensive background check on him, said Agamata, CSC director for public assistance and information office.

In the two instances that he was named Lingkod Bayan awardee, Lasam was cited for his initiatives and implementation of programs that boosted agricultural productivity and income of farmers.

?He was given the awards for his exemplary work performance,?? Agamata said in an interview. ?It?s the most prestigious award from the President.??

A veterinary medicine graduate of the University of the Philippines in 1968, Lasam worked for the Department of Agriculture in Cagayan Valley, and rose from the ranks to become regional executive director, she said.

Lasam was riding his pickup truck to his farm when he was shot dead by two men in Barangay Basi West in Solana town on April 14, 2009.