Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said the Negros Occidental provincial government will source funds for the distribution of fertilizer to the farmers of four local government units whose supply went missing.
“We will source funds to have our own fertilizer distribution with the LGU’s affected by these missing fertilizers as recipients,” Lacson said on Sunday, July 2.
The Department of Agriculture is asking the Negros Occidental provincial government to replace the 789 bags of missing fertilizer intended for farmers in four local government units, DA OIC Regional Director Jose Albert Barrogo said on Friday, June 30.
The missing fertilizer was part of 4,170 bags sent by the DA to the Negros Occidental provincial government as aid to high value crop farmers who were victims of Typhoon Odette.
Missing are 360 bags of fertilizer for Kabankalan City, 200 for Cadiz City, 193 for Cauayan and 36 for Bago City, Barrogo said.
Lacson said it is being investigated to determine who is really responsible for the fertilizer shortage.
Two employees of the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist are facing an investigation for the disappearance of the 789 bags of fertilizer worth P2.3 million from the provincial government’s Rice Processing Center warehouse in Bago City , which was discovered in October last year.
It is hoped that the appropriate people concerned are held responsible and not those who are innocent, Barrogo said.*