Kidapawan City DAR exec faces bribery, graft charges

MANILA, Philippines - The Office of the Ombudsman has indicted an official of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) for allegedly accepting P120,000 bribe from tenant-farmers in Kidapawan City in exchange for a favorable decision on an agrarian case.

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales affirmed the filing of direct bribery and graft charges against Kidapawan City Regional Agrarian Reform Adjudicator Henry Galacio.

The charges stemmed from a complaint by Eduardito Garbo, a tenant-farmer who claimed that Gelacio, on several occasions, solicited and accepted bribe money amounting to P120,000 in exchange for issuance of temporary restraining order (TRO) and writ of preliminary injunction in connection with a land dispute.

Garbo and other tenant-farmers said that they sold their farm animals and implements while some of their children stopped attending schol to raise the funds for the money Gelacio demanded.

The resolution said that  "received the amounts in consideration of the issuane of a TRO and Injunction Order which were connected with his official duties" and the action was " unjust because it pertained to the issuance of an order regardless of merit."

The Ombudsman that Gelacio " compromised performance of the duties reposed upon an adjudicator; a prostitution of pubic position."

She said that the acts "were a betrayal of the responsibility to determine and guarantee the rights and obligations of parties without favor or bias."