4 senior DA-Caraga officials facing graft cases arrested

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The police arrested in separate operations in Butuan City four long suspended senior officials of the Department of Agriculture in the Caraga region facing graft charges at the Sandiganbayan.

Brig. Gen. Pablo Labra II, director of the Police Regional Office-13, told reporters Saturday the arrest one after another Thursday of Edgardo Dagala Dahino and his subordinates, Jessica Suyman Daan, Merylinda Belgira Santos and Gerry Melindres Leop were carried out based on warrants from the Fourth Division of the Associate Justice of Sandiganbayan.

Dahino is assistant regional director while Daan, Santos, and Leop are finance chief, budget officer, and accountant in the DA’s office in Caraga, or Region 13, respectively.

They were implicated in the  2004 fertilizer fund scam allegedly masterminded by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles, who was to earn the  moniker “pork barrel queen” for her involvement in the controversy.

The four DA-Caraga officials allegedly brokered a transaction between Napoles and the local government unit of Del Carmen town in Surigao del Norte, a component-province of Region 12.

The warrants for their arrest were dated May 26, 2023, according to Labra.

Labra, citing a report from DA-Caraga, said Dahino, Daan, Santos and Leop were all suspended from work long before their arrest last Thursday

“I can’t talk about the intricacies of the graft cases they are facing. It’s all about alleged violation of the Anti-Corrupt Practices Act, which is also known as the Republic Act 3019,” Labra said.

He said the separate operations that resulted in their detention were jointly carried out by agents of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and the personnel of units under PRO-13.