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Whistleblower confident of plunder raps vs ex-military execs

By Virgil B. Lopez
Thursday, January 5, 2012
MANILA — Retired Lieutenant Colonel George Rabusa expressed confidence that the Office of the Ombudsman will file plunder charges against military officials who raked in millions of illegal wealth during the past decade.
The Department of Justice (DOH) found two former heads of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and nine other individuals liable for the alleged military fund misuse from 2000 to 2005.
“I am confident that the Ombudsman will file plunder charges and they will review the DOJ resolution so they may still add more respondents,” said Rabusa, who blew the whistle on the controversial issue involving former top officials in the military.
Rabusa, AFP budget officer from 1999 to 2004, had said that some P2.3 billion were supposedly siphoned from the military to fund the so-called “welcome” and “send-off” cash gifts of military chiefs, beginning with the term of Angelo Reyes.
Reyes supposedly received P50-million cash gift when he retired in 2001. He denied the charges but public criticism about the fund misuse allegedly pushed him to commit suicide in February 2011.
Calling it a long-standing tradition in the Armed Forces, Rabusa likewise tagged the names of former military generals Diomedio Villanueva, Roy Cimatu, Generoso Senga, and Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. as recipients of the hefty send-off money, among other monthly allowances.
Villanueva, who was AFP chief from March 2001 to May 2002, allegedly pocketed P227.4 million from military funds, while Cimatu was accused of amassing P110 million from May to September 2002.
In a 100-page resolution, the department found probable cause to indict former AFP chiefs Villanueva and Cimatu with plunder, alongside retired comptrollers Major General Carlos Garcia and Major General Jacinto Ligot, Brigadier General Antonio De Leon (assistant budget officer of Rabusa), Colonel Tomas Donato (ex-assistant budget division chief), and Retired Lieutenant Colonel Ernesto Paranis (formerly of the AFPโ€™s finance service unit).
Also included in the recommendation sheet are Generoso del Castillo (former accounting division chief), Divina Cabrera (state auditor), Retired Major General Hilario Atendido (Villanuevaโ€™s executive assistant), and Colonel Roy Devesa (executive assistant of Reyes).
Cabrera was the resident auditor of the Intelligence Service of the AFP (ISAFP) for 13 years (1991-2005), which is a violation of a 1987 resolution of the Commission on Audit (COA) that limits the stay of auditors in a particular agency to just three years.
The DOJ said that in exchange of monthly support of P50,000 to P75,000 a month, as well as part of the 10 percent conversion cost in ISAFP, Cabrera turned a blind eye in the corruption happening in the military establishment.
A public official can be indicted for plunder if he amassed ill-gotten wealth of at least P50 million. This is a non-bailable offense punishable by life imprisonment and perpetual disqualification from public office.
Earlier, Rabusa brought 20 folders of documents, including receipts of conversion of AFP funds and the amount of budget approved by the former chief of staff during the period 2000 to 2001.
He also tapped the testimonies of former civilian budget officer Perla Valerio and former military disbursement officer Romeo Mateo to prove his allegations.
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said the DOJ’s recommendations will be forwarded to Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales in the next two days, who will weigh on its findings.
“It may adopt, modify, or reverse (the recommendations). It’s up to the Ombudsman to decide or determine whether there is need for another preliminary investigation,” she said.
However, a representative of the Ombudsman said there is no guarantee that the case will be given priority even as Morales promised last year to go after the school of “big fish lurking in government offices.”
“We have to see the document first,” Edgardo Diansuy, Ombudsman Media Affairs Bureau director, told Sun.Star.
Exempted from the DOJ recommendations are retired Lieutenant General Gaudencio Pangilinan, retired Major General Epineto Logico, Captain Kenneth Paglinawan, ex-AFP chief Efren Abu, Colonel Gilbert Gapay, Major Emerson Angulo, and retired Major General Ernesto Boac.
Completing the list are Colonel Robert Arevalo, Arturo Besana, Crisanto Gabriel and Manuel Warren, who are not recommended to be charged for plunder for lack of evidence. (Sunnex)

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/manila/local-news/2012/01/05/whistleblower-confident-plunder-raps-vs-ex-military-execs-199015

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