Atienza cans 4 officials over 'seedling scam'

MANILA, Philippines - Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza suspended yesterday four ranking officers of the DENR in Cagayan province, following the discovery of an “apparent scheme to shortchange” beneficiaries of an emergency employment project in upland communities.

Atienza said he ordered the suspension of DENR Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer (PENRO) for Cagayan Armando Bucad, PENRO-Cagayan accountant Emerita Pescador, Community Environment and Natural Resources (CENRO) for Aparri, Cagayan Proceso Canapi, and Florencio Serra, research assistant of CENRO Sanchez Mira, also in Cagayan for 90 days.

The four were formally charged administratively with grave misconduct and gross neglect of duty pursuant to Executive Order No. 292, also known as the “Administrative Code of 1987” and Civil Service Commission (CSC) Resolution No. 991936 or the “Uniform Rules on Administrative Cases in the Civil Service.”

Based on the suspension order, Atienza said that investigations conducted showed that a prima facie case against the four for their “apparent involvement in the juggling of funds with the intent to undercut the farmer-beneficiaries’ payment and defray the questionable purchase of seedlings amounting to millions of pesos.”

As this developed, Atienza said six other DENR personnel assigned at the accounting units of the provincial DENR offices are currently undergoing investigation for their possible involvement in the irregularity.

Atienza has also ordered to extend the probe of the project’s implementation in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).

“This is very disturbing. This is graft at its rawest form where upland farmers, whom we consider the country’s poorest of the poor, are being milked by the very people whose sworn duty is to help them,” Atienza said.

“This latest irregularity affirms my resolve to implement a top-to-bottom internal purging of undesirables within the department,” he said. “The organizational development that we are undertaking at the department now hinges on the accountability of the men and women of the DENR in the performance of their duties.”

Last month, Atienza said he sent a team of foresters and accountants to Bucad’s office after two farmers complained that the seedlings the farmers bought for their reforestation activities were overpriced and that they were not being paid the amount as stipulated in their contracts. Beneficiaries under the program are supposed to be paid P23,000 each.

Also under the contract, the DENR shall help the farmers find the most affordable source of tree seedlings and that DENR shall adopt a “hands-off” policy when it comes to the actual purchasing of the seedlings to ensure transparency in the sourcing of the planting materials.

Some of the farmers were also contracted to produce seedlings, which in turn, were to be sold to other farmers contracted by the DENR to plant them. Around 483 farmer-beneficiaries in Cagayan participated in the project.

However, Atienza said Bucad was being held liable for allegedly approving cash advances as payment to the contractors while Pescador’s liability arose from reportedly ordering the preparation and recommending the approval of cash advances used in paying the farmers.

Canapi and Serra, on the other hand, were being held liable “for directly contracting the (seedling) supplier and even acted “as the collecting agent of the seedling supplier” identified as Popoy’s Plant Nursery based in Talisay, Batangas.

Canapi was also held liable “for ordering the automatic deduction of the payment for the seedlings from the amount to be received by the contractors.”

If found guilty, the four stand to lose all benefits due them, including lifetime ban from holding public office, and the possibility of facing criminal charges, the DENR said.