The Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) will file criminal charges before the Sandiganbayan against Department of Agriculture (DA) Assistant Secretary for Consumer Affairs Kristine Y. Evangelista and 17 others in the shortage and spiralled prices of onion in 2022.
In a separate decision, the OMB ordered the dismissal of Evangelista and John Gabriel Benedict C. Trinidad III, vice president for operations of Food Terminal, Inc. (FTI), for Grave Misconduct and Conduct Prejudicial to the Best Interest of the Service, and Gross Neglect of Duty and Conduct Prejudicial to the Service, respectively.
"The principal penalty of dismissal from the service is imposed pursuant to Section 46(A)(1) and (3), Rule 10 of the Revised Rules on Administrative Cases in the Civil Service, and shall carry with it the cancellation of eligibility, forfeiture of retirement benefits, and perpetual disqualification for re-employment in the government service," the OMB said in its decision.
Meanwhile, all the criminal charges against DA Senior Undersecretary Domingo F. Panganiban, President and Chief Executive Officer Robert S. Tan of FTI, Chief Accountant Officer-in-Charge Lolita M. Jamela, Administrative Officer V Eunice F. Biblanias, and Budget Division Head Juanita G. Lualhati were dismissed for lack of probable cause.
The administrative charges against Panganiban, Biblanias, Jamela, and Lualhati were also dismissed for insufficiency of evidence. In the case of Tan, the administrative charge against him was also dismissed since he will be a witnesss in the case.
Aside from Evangelista and Tan, also to be charged criminally were Bonena Multi-Purpose Cooperative representative Israel C. Reguyal, Benedict P. Libres, Marlon S. Pagsisihan, Jocelyn Jane, Rossul Batadhay, Romy Jimeno, Charlito Ulanan, Francisco V. Laplana III, Arnold Osorio, Angelo Lajom, Randy Santos, Erickson Cortez, Ruben Bautista, Vince Lorenzo, Windell Glenn A. Canaan, and AJ Bamala.
The OMB said that the DA monitored a recorded price increase in onions by the end of 2022, with prices ranging from P180 per kilogram to P600. The price increase was triggered by a shortage of supply of onions.
It said that to help, the government implemented the KADIWA Food Mobilization Project (FMP) worth P140 million, wherein agri-fishery commodities from the production areas are directly brought to the National Capital Region (NCR) without going through middlemen.
It also said that the DA even implemented the Food Terminal Incorporated (FTI) distribution hub, which would process and pack the agricultural commodities before going to the NCR.
But Ombudsman Samuel R. Martires, in an interview, said that the DA officials "manipulated the price of onions" when they left the purchase of onions to the FTI
"Nakakalungkot isipin na sa kahirapan ng tao at tayo ay nakakabangon pa lamang sa pandemic ng Covid-19 at nagsisimula tayong makahinga ng unti unti ay etong mga taong nagsasamantala, creating an artificial shortage of onions when ang daming onions naman, (It is sad that amidst poverty and while we just started to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and we are just starting to breathe properly, these people took advantage and created an artificial shortage of onions when we actually have a lot of onions)," he said.