Davao agri officials indicted for graft for mishandling solon’s pork

Office of the Ombudsman (Photo by NOY MORCOSO/Inquirer.net)

MANILA — Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales has ordered the filing of graft charges against seven former regional officials of the Department of Agriculture for mishandling the pork barrel funds of a Davao Oriental lawmaker in 2005.

The ex-DA Davao Region officials were accused of failing to comply with bidding procedures when they facilitated three projects using P15.09-million of Davao Oriental 2nd Dist. Rep. Joel Mayo Almario’s allocations.

Investigators found that the officials did not conduct any pre-procurement or pre-bid conferences for the projects. The officials also failed to publish any bid invitation as required by the Government Procurement Reform Act, the Ombudsman’s media bureau said on Wednesday.

The Ombudsman said the officials did not dispute the non-compliance with procurement rules. Instead, they claimed to have no involvement in the bidding process.

Morales deemed this defense “untenable” and stressed that “the wanton disregard of a plain and simple policy of the law that defeated the principle of transparency and competitiveness in the procurement process is sufficient to establish that respondents acted with evident bad faith, manifest partiality or gross inexcusable negligence.”

The projects involved the procurement of 100 units of multimedia systems with computer sets and 81 units of personalized 10×20 livelihood tents using P10 million and P2.5 million of Almario’s Priority Development Assistance Fund allocations.

Another P2.59 million, sourced from Almario’s share in the GMA Rice and Corn Program, was earmarked for water system materials.

Former regional executive director Roger Chio, finance division chief Alma Mahinay, and  administrative officer Godofredo Ramos face four counts of violating Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

Former regional technical director Romulo Palcon and agricultural engineering division chief Onofre Nugal each face three and two counts of graft, respectively, while former chief agriculturist Jamie Bergonio and chief administrative officer Isagani Basco face one count of graft each.

The issue came to fore after Almario wrote the Ombudsman to request an investigation into the alleged anomalies in the usage of his pork barrel allocations.

Almario recently staged a comeback, only to find himself at the receiving end of Morales’ sass during an August 25 budget hearing at the House of Representatives. When he asked her what the word Ombudsman meant, Morales indulged him with an explanation before telling him that “we can Google it,” eliciting laughter.  SFM