- GILBERT BAYORAN
The provincial government of Negros Occidental has been asked by the Department of Agriculture in Western Visayas to replace the 789 bags of fertilizer discovered missing from its warehouse in Bago City.
A total of 4,170 bags of fertilizer were endorsed by the DA to the provincial government, through the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist, for safekeeping at the provincial government warehouse in Brgy. Tabunan, Bago, and for distribution to farmers affected by Typhoon Odette in the province.
Two employees of the OPA assigned at the warehouse are now being investigated by the Provincial Legal Office over the missing bags of inorganic fertilizer, valued at P2.3 million.
In his letter to Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson, DA6 OIC regional executive director Albert Barrogo said that they received requests from the local government units of Kabankalan, Cadiz, Cauayan, and Bago on the release of fertilizer allocated to them.
“Relative to this, may we request for a possible solution, particularly on how the missing allocation will be replaced and completely delivered to our affected farmers,” Barrogo said in his letter to Lacson.
Barrogo added that they are hoping that the provincial government will replace the reported missing fertilizer, as soon as possible, in time for the wet cropping season.
The LGUs of Kabankalan and Cadiz have yet to receive their allocations of fertilizer at 360 and 200 bags, respectively, while Cauayan still has a balance of 193 sacks, and 36 sacks for Bago City, DA6 records show.
As to the filing of cases against concerned provincial government employees assigned at the warehouse, Barrogo said he will discuss this concern with the incoming DA 6 regional director on Monday.
While he acknowledged the investigations and actions taken by the PLO on the missing fertilizer, Barrogo said they should dig deeper in their probe to determine the real culprits and not penalized the innocent ones./GB
