The Office of the Ombudsman has ordered the filing of graft charges against Department of Agriculture Assistant Secretary Kristine Evangelista and 16 others over an allegedly anomalous deal with an onion supplier for the agency’s Kadiwa stores.
The Ombudsman also ordered the dismissal from service of Evangelista and Food Terminal Incorporated (FTI) vice president John Gabriel Benedict Trinidad III.
The Ombudsman found Evangelista “guilty of grave misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of service.”
Ombudsman Samuel Martires, interviewed over dzBB, said based on the pieces of evidence they have gathered, “it seems that the prices of onions have been manipulated.”
“It seems there was no bidding that took place. The CCTVs we had showed only one person brought the three envelopes (of bids) handed over to the senior vice president. Those involved were able to create an artificial shortage of onions,” he added.
In August, Evangelista, Trinidad, Administrative Officer V Eunice Biblanias, DA OIC-Chief Accountant Lolita Jamela, and FTI Budget Division Head Juanita Lualhati were slapped with a six-month preventive suspension without pay for the questionable procurement of onions by FTI from Bonena Multi-Purpose Cooperative.
The five DA officials as well as DA Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban and FTI President Robert Tan are facing complaints for grave misconduct, gross neglect of duty and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service in connection with the onion supply deal.
The Ombudsman, however, junked the administrative charges against Panganiban, Biblanias, Jamela and Lualhati for lack of evidence.
The charges against Tan were also dismissed “with the approval of his manifestation to be a witness and the provide this Office of relevant material prosecution of this case precludes his inclusion in the filing of charges against him.”
“The resolution of this case is without prejudice to the conduct of fact-finding investigation against other public officers and private individuals responsible for the irregularities in the said project,” the Ombudsman added.