THE Office of the Ombudsman has ordered the preventive suspension without pay of Department of Agriculture (DA) Assistant Secretary Kristine Evangelista, two other DA officials and two Food Terminal Inc. officials over the questionable procurement of onions for the Kadiwa Food Hub.
The others ordered suspended were DA Administrative Officer V Eunice Biblanias, DA officer-in-charge Chief Accountant Lolita Jamela, FTI Vice President for Operations John Gabriel Benedict Trinidad III, and Budget Division Head Juanita Lualhati.
Their suspension would last for the duration of the proceedings, but not to exceed six months.
The order was signed by Ombudsman Samuel Martires.
The suspension stemmed from the complaint for grave misconduct, gross neglect of duty, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service filed against the officials in connection with the shortage of onions in the Philippine markets.
The complaint alleged that there was price manipulation and questionable procurement of onions by the FTI from Bonena Multi-Purpose Cooperative.
The DA had entered into a memorandum of agreement with FTI for the Kadiwa project.
The FTI, in turn, entered into a letter of agreement with Bonena for the delivery of 8,845 bags of onions for Kadiwa.
But according to the Office of the Ombudsman, documents show that there were allegedly violations of the anti-graft law in relation to the procurement law.
These were the lack of parameters in the selection of the cooperative that would supply the onions, the questionable advance payment of 50 percent of the contract price, the non-compliance with the MOA, and doubtful deliveries by Bonena, it said.
“In view of the foregoing, it appears that the evidence of guilt of respondents Evangelista, Biblanias, Jamela, Trinidad III and Lualhati is strong and the charges against them involve Grave Misconduct and Gross Neglect of Duty which may warrant their removal from service,” it said.
It said they must be preventively suspended as their continued stay in office may influence potential witnesses and may prejudice the case filed against them due to their continued access to documentary evidence.
