The Senate Blue Ribbon committee on Thursday recommended filing administrative and criminal charges against an agriculture official and three former Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) members over the sugar importation fiasco, dzBB reported.

The radio station, citing the committee report, said 14 out of 17 senators signed the report.

It reported that suspended Agriculture Undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian, former SRA administrator Hermenegildo Serafica and former Sugar Board members Roland Beltran and Aurelio Gerardo Valderrama Jr. are recommended to face charges before the Office of the Ombudsman.

The panel recommended filing administrative charges against them due to “serious dishonesty, grave misconduct, gross neglect of duty, conduct prejudicial to the best interest of service, and gross insubordination under the revised rules on administrative cases in the civil service”.

They are also recommended to face criminal charges for graft and corruption, agricultural smuggling, and usurpation of official functions.

Sebastian, Serafica, Beltran, and Valderema were signatories of Sugar Order No. 4 (SO4), which directed the importation of 300,000 metric tons of sugar.

Malacanang Palace called the order “illegal” since it did not have the approval of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., who is also Agriculture Secretary. It nullified the order. Jaspearl Tan/DMS