By GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
ILOILO — The Provincial Legal Office (PLO) should take action on the alleged anomaly in the Rice Development Program of the provincial government, Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr. said.
If it deems the findings of the fact-finding committee headed by Susette Mamon valid, he said, it should file appropriate charges against Provincial Agriculturist Ildefonso Toledo and rice program leader/coordinator Carmelo Oren.
Toledo and Oren had been in hot water after Mamon’s committee found out that the Provincial Agriculture Office failed to account sackloads of fertilizers and palay seeds the provincial government bought for distribution to farmers.
Oren’s failure to clearly account for the agricultural supplies would give rise to criminal and/or administrative liability, the committee said.
Toledo, on the other hand, may have committed “nonfeasance” for his failure and neglect to perform his functions as the person directly exercising authority over his subordinate (Oren) in the implementation of the project, it said.
PLO is headed by Atty. Dennis Ventilacion. Mamon is an executive assistant to the governor.
As part of due process, another committee — different from the fact-finding committee — will be created to investigate Toledo and Oren, Defensor said.
The two officials will thus have the chance to explain and defend themselves, said the governor.
Toledo earlier said he believes the fertilizers and palay seeds reached the Rice Procurement Program’s intended beneficiaries.
“Documentation errors” may have caused the discrepancies discovered by the fact-finding committee, he said.
Toledo also admitted to not thoroughly checking documents related to the program and the distribution of the agricultural items.
Oren, for his part, denied any irregularity in the implementation of the Rice Development Program, insisting that there were no missing bags of rice seeds or fertilizer.
He explained that some of the reported unaccounted fertilizers were used in the Rice Demonstration Farm Art Center in Pototan town, while others were stored at the Western Visayas Integrated Agricultural Research Center in Jaro, Iloilo City.
Oren stressed that the fact-finding committee may have simply missed the stocks.
He also said what the committee claimed to be unaccounted high-quality palay seeds have been distributed to the farmers./PN
