TACLOBAN CITY – The legal division of the Department of Agrarian Reform regional office here has recently recommended to DAR Secretary Nasser Pangandaman that Paquito “Pax” Diaz, municipal agrarian reform officer, be dismissed from government service after he was found guilty of Absence Without Official Leave (AWOL).

This was confirmed yesterday by lawyer Geronimo Peque, DAR chief of the legal division, who said that the final decision would still come from Pangandaman since it was the secretary who has the appointing authority for positions like that of Diaz.

“We already recommended him for immediate dropping from DAR’s roll because of the AWOL case filed against him,” Peque told Express.

The case stemmed when Leyte Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer Enrique Granados started inquiring about Diaz’s accomplishment after he had assigned Diaz through a special order as MARO in Cluster IV covering the towns of Tabango, San Isidro and Villaba, all in Leyte.

Based on records, Diaz failed to comply with the order. But he claimed in his answer that he eas unable to comply with the order due to alleged danger and threats to his life as active crusader in the successful ouster of then Leyte Metropolitan Water District General Manager Engr. Ranulfo Feliciano.

Atty. Peque said that based on record, since June of 2005 Diaz did not report to his filed assignment and that he had no performance, and this prompted concerned DAR officials not to give him any salary in the absence of his accomplishment report.

Recently, Diaz’s legal counsel, Atty. Samuel Lagunsad, wrote DAR regional director Tiburcio Morales, Jr. demanding that Diaz’s monthly salary since June 2005 up to December be given to him, claiming that Diaz was “illegally terminated” from the office.

“We are still waiting for the final action of Secretary Pangandaman for this matter, because the final say for the AWOL case of Diaz will come from him,” Peque said.

He stressed that since Diaz committed AWOL based on records and the result of the investigation, their role here in the region is only recommendatory, yet Diaz could still contest his case before the office of the DAR secretary before the final decision will come out.

“Ours is only recommendatory. The final action will always come from Secretary Pangandaman,” he added.

Diaz is at present the regional chairperson of COURAGE in Eastern Visayas.