Legal office orders OPA engineers to explain missing sacks of fertilizer

By Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD City – Negros Occidental Provincial Legal Officer Alberto Nellas on Thursday said his office ordered two engineers of the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist to explain what happened to the 789 bags of fertilizer that went missing from the Rice Processing Center (RPC) storage in Barangay Tabunan, Bago City.

The missing fertilizer was valued at P2.3 million.

Nellas identified the two as Joy Cardinal and Hermigildo Basilio who are assigned to the RPC storage.

“The two were already pulled out from the storage and were reassigned,” Nellas said.

He said Cardinal and Basilio were given five days to answer the show cause order issued on April 27, 2023 and was served to the duo on May 2.

“Considering nga layo ang ila mga assignment nabudlayan kita mag serve wala ma serve daun,” Nellas said.

Nellas said the two engineers must explain why the town of Cauayan was unable to withdraw the fertilizer allotted to them.

The 789 missing bags of fertilizer were discovered during the inventory conducted right after the incident.

Nellas also cleared the security persons assigned to RPC storage, saying they had nothing to do with it.

“They (security guards) were just assigned to secure the perimeter of the government property but as far as safeguarding and release of the contents of the warehouse, the two (Cardinal and Basilio) are responsible for it.

Earlier, Nellas hinted at a possible “inside job” in the case of the missing sacks of fertilizer.