• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The provincial government of Negros Occidental has been asked by the Department of Agriculture regional office in Western Visayas, to replace the 789 bags of fertilizers they reported as missing from its warehouse in Bago City, Negros Occidental.
A total of 4,170 bags of fertilizers for distribution to farmers affected by Typhoon Odette in the province were endorsed by DA to the provincial government, through the OPA, for safekeeping at the provincial government warehouse in Brgy. Tabunan, Bago City.
Two employees of the Office of Provincial Agriculturist assigned at the warehouse are currently being investigated by the Provincial Legal Office for the 789 missing bags of inorganic fertilizers, valued at P2.3 million.
In his letter to Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson, DA officer-in-charge regional executive director Albert Barrogo said that they received requests from the local government units of Kabankalan, Cadiz, Cauayan and Bago, regarding the release of their allocation of fertilizers and withdrawal without delivery.
Relative to this, may we request for a possible solution, particularly on how the missing allocation can be replaced and completely delivered to our affected farmers, Barrogo said in his letter to Lacson.
Barrogo said they are hoping that the provincial government of Negros Occidental will replace the missing fertilizer as soon as possible, in time for the wet cropping season.
The LGUs of Kabankalan and Cadiz have yet to receive their allocation of fertilizers, at 360 and 200 bags, respectively, while Cauayan has still a balance of 193 sacks, and 36 sacks for Bago City, DA6 records showed.
Regarding the filing of cases against concerned provincial government employees assigned at the warehouse, Barrogo said he will discuss it with the incoming DA 6 regional director on Monday.
While he acknowledged the investigations and action taken by the Provincial Legal Office on the missing fertilizers, Barrogo said they should dig deeper into their probe to determine the real culprits, and not penalize are innocent ones.*
