Ex-Albay mayor, 4 others charged over fertilizer scam

MANILA, Philippines — The former mayor of Malinao town in Albay and four other local officials are facing graft and malversation cases in connection with the multimillion-peso fertilizer fund scam in 2004.

Filed by the Office of the Ombudsman before the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan on December 11, the charges against former Malinao mayor Emiliana Kare include two counts of violation of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and another two counts of malversation of public funds under the Revised Penal Code.

Also named as respondents in the cases were former Department of Agriculture Region 5 (Bicol Region) officer-in-charge Hector Sales, former acting municipal accountant Rosemarie Cea-Capus and former municipal treasurer Leonora Capus.

Based on the charge sheets prepared by ombudsman assistant special prosecutor Jorge Espinal, the respondents conspired in giving “unwarranted benefits, advantage or preference” to private supplier Feshan Philippines Inc. by procuring from it in 2004 a total of 4,000 liters of Bio-Nature Liquid Organic Fertilizer amounting P2,971,772.

The ombudsman said the procurements were done without any public bidding and despite the lack of participation of the municipality's Bids and Awards Committee.

Furthermore, the ombudsman said the respondents' resort to the specific brand name of an item to be procured was in violation of RA 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act.

The ombudsman said the respondents also approved the release of the payments to Feshan through Land Bank of the Philippines checks dated April 26 and Aug. 13, 2004 “despite irregularities attendant to the said procurement, thereby causing undue injury to the government.”

Kare, together with former municipal agriculturist Norberto Resontoc, was also separately charged with one count of malversation of public funds for supposed unaccounted 47 bottles of Bio-Nature Liquid Organic Fertilizer also procured from Feshan sometime in 2004 at P1,500 per bottle or a total of P70,500.

The ombudsman recommended a P180,000 bail bond in exchange for Kare's provisional liberty.

The ombudsman, meanwhile, recommended P140,000 bail bond each for Sales, Cea-Capus and Capus, and P40,000 for Resontoc.

The municipality's purchase of fertilizer was part of the nationwide implementation of the DA's Ginintuang Masaganang Ani Program in 2004 which aimed to extend assistance to poor farmers in the countrysides.

It was later revealed that P723-million worth of funds for the program was allegedly used for the 2004 presidential campaign of now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

The ombudsman had earlier cleared Arroyo of any involvement in the fertilizer scam.

The Sandiganbayan, in 2016, dismissed the plunder case against the alleged scam mastermind, former DA undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-Joc”Bolante, citing the insufficiency of evidence of the ombudsman

Several fertilizer scam cases against local officials were also dismissed by the Sandiganbayan in 2017 citing the ombudsman's “inordinate delay” in its investigation, which, the court said, was tantamount to violation of the accused's constitutional right to speedy resolution of cases.