Arrest orders out for DA exec with 30 falsification raps

By Florence F. Hibionada

Orders are out for the arrest of a Department of Agriculture employee charged with falsifying public documents.

Abundio Legaspi, an agricultural technician with the DA regional office, is accused of 30 counts of falsification of public documents in case numbers 05-61067 to 05-61096 pending before Branch 39 of the 6 th Regional Trial Court. A total of P720,000, or P24,000 for each count, has been set for his provisional liberty.

A check made with the DA office revealed that Legaspi went on leave. DA insiders are unable to locate his actual whereabouts. His last known address was in Barangay Dawis in New Lucena.

The case stemmed from the various Grains Production Enhancement Program (GPEP) of the DA, of which he was provincial coordinator.

The Ombudsman alleged that Legaspi certified that the multi-purpose drying pavements (MPDP) under the GPEP program have been 100% completed “when in truth and in fact, as accused very well knew, the construction of the aforesaid MPDP was not so completed 100% thereby making untruthful statements in a narration of facts.”

Thus, Legaspi was found by the anti-graft body to have committed “with deliberate intent, with intent to defraud and falsify, did then and there willfully, unlawfully and feloniously falsify a public document.”

The DA projects subject of the falsification raps include those supposedly implemented in the municipalities of Batad, Tubungan, Alimodian, Anilao, New Lucena, Lambunao, Sara, Sta. Barbara, Maasin, Ajuy, Pototan, Leon, Concepcion, Badiangan, Leganes, Januiay, San Miguel and Balasan.

Top government auditors are among those who stand to be called as witnesses against Legaspi.