Graft, malversation raps filed against NFA execs in Agusan del Sur

SAN FRANCISCO, Agusan del Sur—Police have filed graft and malversation charges against the head of the National Food Authority  (NFA) office here and another official following the disappearance of 1,800 bags of rice from an NFA warehouse.

The charges were filed against Gil Tabor, NFA provincial manager, and Melvin Pacana, NFA warehouse supervisor.

Supt. Randy Glenn Silvio, Caraga chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), said the charges had been filed in the Ombudsman Mindanao in Davao City.

Silvio said the police initially wanted to file charges against Pacana only, but Gil was also charged after witnesses claimed seeing Gil with Pacana at the NFA warehouse in Bayugan City when at least 550 sacks of rice were removed from the warehouse and taken to Davao City.

An inventory revealed that a total of 1,800 bags of rice could not be accounted for.

Gil had said the disappearance of the rice was the work of Pacana alone. He said the removal of the rice from the Bayugan City warehouse was unauthorized.

He also quoted Pacana as admitting that the rice stock, worth P2.4 million, went to “unknown traders.”

Gil has not officially commented on the filing of the case against him, but his younger brother, lawyer and  Cagayan de Oro City Councilor Ramon Tabor, was incensed and accused the CIDG of extortion.

Ramon said his law office would sue Silvio and other CIDG operatives, including Senior Insp. Dick Cale, head of the CIDG team of investigators that looked into the rice mess.

He said the CIDG “fabricated lies” against his brother.

Speaking to reporters in Cagayan de Oro City on Monday, Ramon accused a CIDG operative of extorting money from his brother.

Gil had told reporters in Butuan City last week that he and SPO1 Nelson Yu Frias of the CIDG Caraga office had met at a bar to discuss the disappearance of the rice stock.

“During our conversation, he offered to help me,” Gil said of his meeting with Frias. “He told me that the CIDG has no money. I told him that the NFA has no money either,” Gil said.

Silvio said the extortion yarn was aimed at muddling the issue. “It’s a lie,” he said.

Silvio recalled a phone conversation with Gil during which Gil was asked if any CIDG man tried to extort from him.

“I asked him (Gil) if any of my men came to ask for  money from him, and he said no,” Silvio said. Reports from Chris Panganiban and Allan Nawal, Inquirer Mindanao