MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the Ombudsman has ordered graft charges filed against former Department of Agriculture officials over the alleged irregularities in the awarding of a P2.097-billion contract to British company SRT Marine Systems Solutions Ltd. – United Kingdom in 2018.
“Escoto, Gongona and Tucker had apparently schemed to ultimately award a contract to SRT-UK that is disadvantageous to the government. The series of events that came prior to the award are circumstantial evidence proving that an irregularity had been committed and they are probably guilty thereof,” the resolution read.
The PHILO project aimed to strengthen BFAR’s capability to monitor the country’s maritime resources by requiring all commercial fishing vessels to install a monitoring system showing their location at sea.