DA Sec. Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. – Photo courtesy of Department of Agricuture/Facebook.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) has filed formal charges against officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) as well as a number of private contractors over irregularities in the agency’s ₱94-million farm-to-market road (FMR) projects in Davao Occidental.
According to agriculture secretary Francisco ‘Kiko’ Tiu Laurel Jr., eight cases were filed before the Office of the Ombudsman after a seven-month case buildup on several ‘ghost’ and substandard infrastructure projects supposedly done in Davao Occidental.
Named in the complaints were DPWH Davao Occidental district engineer Rodrigo Larete, project engineer and construction section officer-in-charge Joel Lumogdang, OIC-assistant district engineer Michael Awa, quality assurance officer Jafel Faunillan, acting finance chief Czar Ryan Ubungen and a private contractor.
The respondents were charged with corrupt practices, malversation, falsification of public documents, grave misconduct and serious dishonesty in connection with the FMR project in Barangay Caburan, Jose Abad Santos, which was allegedly paid in full despite not being implemented.
They reportedly falsified statements of work accomplished (SWAs), certificates of payment (COPs) and disbursement vouchers (DVs) to make it appear that the project had been completed.
During a press briefing, Tiu Laurel assured a strong case against the DPWH officials and contractors, stressing that they have good and solid evidence.
“They can get good lawyers. So, we really have to prepare a case. Ngayon, nandito tayo after pitong buwan, I can say na medyo maganda at solid lahat ng ebidensya, solid ang lahat ng kaso,” he enthused as he stressed that the projects, which were supposed to be constructed in 2021, could have helped local farmers bring down their production and logistics costs.
Another complaint was also filed against the same DPWH officials and Masulot Construction, represented by Maligamama Medtamak, over the Barangay Caburan Small FMR in Jose Abad Santos.
The ₱11.92-million project was allegedly certified as completed, resulting in the disbursement of government funds. However, the DA Internal Audit Service (IAS) later found that the project had not been implemented.
Additional complaints involve DPWH officials Larete, Lumogdang, Villaver, Awa, Faunillan, Ubungen and seven contractors were also filed over FMR projects in Barangay Culaman, Datu Danwata, Demoloc, Tical and Manuel Peralta, with contract values ranging from ₱10.02 million to ₱14.92 million.
Tiu Laurel disclosed more complaints involving ghost projects will be filed in the next few months wuth a case buildup being done for a project in Guinobatan, Albay and some 20 out of the 1,241 FMR projects in Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Bicol, Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao and Davao region that were not implemented.