The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee on Thursday recommended criminal and administrative charges against the four signatories of the controversial order to import 300,000 metric tons of sugar into the country.
The following has been recommended to face charges before the Office of the Ombudsman:
- suspended Agriculture Undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian
- former SRA administrator Hermenegildo Serafica
- former Sugar Board member Roland Beltran
- former Sugar Board member Aurelio Gerardo Valderrama Jr.
According to the panel, they have committed administrative offenses of serious dishonesty, grave misconduct, gross neglect of duty, conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service, and gross insubordination.
It added that the criminal charges involve graft and corruption, agricultural smuggling, and usurpation of official functions.
The panel, chaired by Senator Francis Tolentino, also pushed to include the four officials in the immigration lookout bulletin.
The same report seemingly cleared Executive Secretary Vic Rodriguez, who revealed during the hearing that he received a draft of the controversial Sugar Order No. 4 but ignored it following the pending decision from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who also sits as the Agriculture secretary.
The hearing on the sugar importation fiasco stemmed from the publication of Sugar Order No. 4, authorizing the importation of 300,000 metric tons of sugar, on the SRA website.
Malacanang has tagged the resolution as illegal and unauthorized.
