Graft charges filed vs DAR official

Office of the Ombudsman. NOY MORCOSO/INQUIRER.net file photo

An agrarian reform officer has been indicted in the Sandiganbayan for graft after he allegedly extorted a whole tuna fish and P120,000 from a group of poor farmers in Kidapawan City in 2007.

The Office of the Ombudsman said Henry Gelacio violated Republic Act No. 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, when he demanded money and fish from the complainants in exchange for his help in an agrarian case they had filed.

Gelacio, the regional agrarian reform adjudicator of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Central Mindanao, was also charged with violation of RA No. 6713, also known as the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.

According to the Ombudsman, the DAR official asked and received money from 14 farmers on five different occasions between August and November 2007.

It said the group had sought the issuance of a temporary restraining order and an injunction order to Gelacio in connection with an agrarian case.

The Ombudsman said the farmers’ children had to stop going to school after their parents decided to sell their livestock and farm equipment to raise the money that Gelacio had purportedly demanded from them.

“(The) complainants were forced to sell their farm animals, tools and materials at extremely low prices, resulting in more difficult farming conditions and their children’s inability to continue attending school,” the Ombudsman said.

It said Gelacio’s acts showed evident bad faith on his part which caused undue injury to the farmers “whose rights and interests were compromised.”

The Ombudsman recommended a P40,000 bail for Gelacio’s provisional liberty once the antigraft court orders his arrest.