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Sunday, September 07, 2003
Ombudsman suspends five DENR-CAR top employees
By Harley F. Palangchao
BAGUIO -- The Ombudsman for Luzon ordered the suspension of five employees of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) regional office, including three officials, for three months without pay over charges of grave misconduct and gross neglect of duty.
Ordered suspended are lawyer Romeo Bravo, current head of the Kalinga Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (Penro), foresters Peter Osbucan, Moises Bai and Cenro-Apayao employees Alexander Aswigue and Jerome Balongay.
Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon, Victor Fernandez, ruled that the DENR-CAR officials were remiss in their duties resulting to the "cannibalization" of P1.55 million worth of two Isuzu trucks and failure to account for some P614,000 worth of furnitures like rattan and narra earlier seized by the Philippine Army.
Fernandez said the DENR employees failed to protect the forfeited items and copy-furnished the affected parties with the documents, particularly the forfeiture order.
The said lapses were known after Executive Judge Quirino Andaya of the Apayao Regional Trial Court issued an order acquitting Marilyn David, the owner of the vehicles and their contents from the charges filed against her by the DENR-CAR.
Andaya, ordered the DENR-CAR to also release the vehicles and their cargoes to David.
"It was only around that time when the decision was promulgated that the DENR-CAR realized that no copies of the forfeiture order (issued by then DENR Regional Executive Director Oscar Hamada on April 27, 1997) was furnished to the parties, their legal officers and the court where the criminal case was filed."
Forester Franklin Sapla, former Apayao Penro officer, claimed in his affidavit that the forfeited vehicles and their cargoes were intact when he turned over his post to Bravo on August 19, 1997.
Bravo served as Apayao Penro officer from August 6, to January 2000.
The Ombudsman ruled that Bravo should be held administratively liable because it is his accountability to secure the forfeited items even as the latter claimed that there was no formal turnover of the forfeited items to him.
The Ombudsman also imposed a one month and one day suspension to Osbucan and Bai for their failure to serve the parties, the legal division and the court of the forfeiture order after a period of four years.
It noted that Bai and Osbucan, being the chief of the Forest Conversation Division and OIC regional technical director for forest management service, respectively, were responsible in conducting administrative proceedings.
Aswigue and Balonggay, on the other hand, were also suspended after the Ombudsman rejected their claims that the area where the vehicles and their cargoes were placed was open, reason why the trucks were cannibalized and reported missing.
The Ombudsman, on the other hand, dismissed the criminal charges filed against Diego Ambatali, Franklin Sapla, Regina Ulayan and Trinidad Daligdig, the other DENR-CAR employees implicated in the case, for lack of merit.
(September 7, 2003 issue)
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