Ex-Marawi mayor, 6 others indicted for fertilizer fund scam
September 9, 2014 | 1:40pm
MANILA, Philippines - The Office of the Ombudsman found sufficient ground to indict a former mayor of Marawi City and six others implicated in the anomalous expenditure of public funds intended for the Farm Inputs and Farm Implements Program of the Department of Agriculture (DA).
In a 17-page resolution, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales ordered the filing of graft charges against former Mayor Omar Ali and private respondents Jaime Paule, Marilyn Araos, Marites Aytona, Leonicia Llarena, Minda Bombase and Joselito Flordeliza, president of the National Organization for Agricultural Enhancement and Productivity Incorporated (NOAEPI).
The resolution said that a memorandum of agreement (MOA) was signed by Ali, Flordeliza and DA Regional Field Unit 10 Director Rufo Chan Jr. on May 6, 2004.
Under the MOA, NOAEPI received the amount of P1,999,500 from DA-RFU 10 in two tranches to cover the payment for 1,333 bottles of liquid organic fertilizer priced at P1,500 per bottle bought from Feshan Philippines, Inc.
Findings made by the Commission on Audit (COA) revealed that NOAEPI was awarded the contract even if the NOAEPI's total equity is only P468,868.40.
The COA report also showed that no List of Farmer Beneficiaries or Distribution List was submitted to support the liquidation.
The report also revealed that the fertilizers were overpriced as its actual price is only P150 per bottle and not P1,500.
The resolution said that Ali “failed to monitor and ascertain the status of the project, the proper utilization of the fund, and the receipt of the fertilizers by the farmer beneficiaries."
The Ombudsman said that “in the performance of his official duty, Ali acted with manifest partiality, evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence, and gave unwarranted benefit to NOAEPI, and entered into a contract that is gross and manifestly disadvantageous to the government.”
“Paule, Araos, Aytona, Llarena, Bombase and Flordeliza are private persons who conspired with Ali…they were the ones who diverted the fund received by NOAEPI and Feshan,” the resolution added.
Meanwhile, the charges against city administrator Nasser Sampaco, municipal treasurer Anggay Abdullah, municipal accountant Potre Taurak, state auditor Pundug Laguindab, and Deonilla Gregorio and Redentor Antolin, both from Feshan Philippines, Inc. were dismissed for lack of probable cause, while the complaint for Malversation of Public Funds was dismissed for lack of merit.
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