THE Office of the Ombudsman moved to file graft charges against three regional officers of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for nullifying the survey plans of lot owners in favor a construction company.

Ombubdsman Conchita Carpio-Morales ordered the indictment of Regidor de Leon, central Luzon regional director; Leonardo Aggabao Jr., regional technical director for lands; and engineer Fernando Clerigo.

According to the antigraft agency, the three environment officials invalidated the already approved survey plans of Jaime Lazaro, Salvador Osita and Monico Waje, lot owners whose survey plans are located in the town of Santa Cruz in Zambales province.

The complainants accused the officials of conspiring to cancel their survey plans in favor of the foreshore lease application of DMCI Holdings Inc.

Lazaro and others claimed that their survey plans were canceled without availing them of a hearing, which was “in gross violation of the elementary rule of due process.”

The cancelation was irregular as it was made before the scheduled ground survey, the complainants stressed.

They claimed that the lots covered by the plans have not been submerged under the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) contrary to the findings of the Environment department’s regional office.

Morales resolved that the “respondents’ manifest partiality and bad faith became very obvious when they arbitrarily cancelled private complainants’ approved survey plans before the scheduled ground verification survey.”

The agency also held that conspiracy was shown among the respondents in accomplishing a criminal design to favor the Consunji-led corporation.

“This is a clear case of putting the cart ahead of the horse . . . While there is possibility to cancel the [survey plans], still, it offers no excuse for the respondents to ignore the cardinal requirements of due process,” the Ombudsman resolved.

The Ombudsman also slapped the three guilty of grave misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service, which was meted out with one-year suspension without pay.

“[The] respondents’ conduct clearly violated the norm of public accountability and diminished the faith of the people in the [Environment department],” the resolution read.

Criminal and administrative charges filed against Juan Fernandez Jr., chief of the surveys division; Marife Castillo, officer-in-charge of the land management office; Juanito David, officer-in-charge of community environment and natural resources; Rowena Magat, special investigator; Joel Dedicatoria, land management inspector; and Dionito Pascual, forest ranger, were dismissed for insufficiency of evidence.