Daily TribuneFor a recommendation that was never adopted, for following a lawful instruction from higher authorities, for doing their jobs, and for trying to abort a destructive sugar crisis, the majority members of the SBRC want the four jailed for life!
That the four resigned officials of the Department of Agriculture and the Sugar Regulatory Administration have been thrown to the sharks by the Executive Secretary, the Press Secretary, the chairperson of the Blue Ribbon Committee and its committee members, who should have known better, following the sugar controversy is an unmistakable and outrageous fact.
While the resignation of the Executive Secretary yesterday, a disguised palatable forced exit owing to a series of questionable acts and activities, the last of which was the sugar fiasco arising from gross incompetence and dereliction of duty, and a belated but expected fall from grace and power, may somehow deaden the pain and sufferance, no matter how minimal, of the four aggrieved and pitiable shamed and humiliated ex-DA officials, the same remains a tragedy that could have been avoided if only the two Cabinet members were fealty to their oath of office and have exercised prudence and responsibility expected of them, instead of clumsily and vexingly eroding the good image and the political redemption of the President and his family.
The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee report/findings/recommendation is characterized with indecent haste, full of flawed reasoning and convoluted legal logic. It says the four former DA officials are guilty of "serious dishonesty" and "grave misconduct"
Whoa! Serious dishonesty and grave misconduct? Is telling the truth that there were 1 and 4 August 2022 meetings with the President and Chief Executive, where the sugar supply shortage and the urgent need for the importation of sugar were discussed an act of serious dishonesty or grave misconduct?
Is revealing the fact that it was the Executive Secretary and the President who instructed them to prepare the importation plan and Sugar Order 4 a serious dishonest act? Is stating the fact that he received the 15 August 2022 memorandum coming from the Executive Secretary "by authority of the President," granting delegated power to act for the President as Secretary of Agriculture on matters affecting the sugar industry and to carry out the policies and programs of the DA relative thereto, serious dishonesty or grave misconduct?
Is expressing that it was their honest belief, having been instructed to prepare the draft SO4 by the President and the Executive Secretary, that their issuance of the said importation order is pursuant to such instructions serious dishonesty or grave misconduct?
Lastly, the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee recommends the investigation of the four and the filing of criminal charges against them for committing the crime of large-scale agricultural smuggling as economic sabotage, a non-bailable offense! For a recommendation that was never adopted, for following a lawful instruction from higher authorities, for doing their jobs, and for trying to abort a destructive sugar crisis, the majority members of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee want the four jailed for life!
Incredible and inhuman! The height of trumpery! A colossal and disgraceful miscarriage of justice.
