PRIVATE BANK
MANILA,
FEBRUARY 11, 2011 (STAR)
By Jess Diaz - Members of the House defense committee discovered yesterday that
the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) illegally diverted $55 million (about
P2.4 billion) in reimbursements from the United Nations (UN) to an account in a
private bank.
Representatives Joseph Emilio Abaya of Cavite and Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan
de Oro City said the reimbursements should have been remitted to the national
treasury instead of being deposited in an AFP account with the United Coconut
Planters Bank (UCPB) branch on Alfaro Street in Makati City.
Abaya, who chairs the committee on appropriations that has oversight powers
over the budget, said under government regulations, all agency revenues are to
be remitted to the national treasury, which maintains an account with
state-owned Land Bank.
"These should include UN reimbursements for costs incurred by the government
in sending peacekeeping troops abroad upon the request of the UN," he said.
Rodriguez, on the other hand, said there is a 1997 executive order directing
all state agencies to deposit all receipts in the Land Bank account of the
national treasury.
"If these agencies need funds, they request Malacañang for releases," he
said.
The two congressmen made the statements in the course of the initial hearing
of the defense committee on UN remittances to the AFP and after officials of the
Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) briefed the panel on such remittances.
DFA Undersecretary Erlinda Basilio informed the committee that between 1999
and 2002, UN reimbursements were coursed through the DFA and deposited in a Land
Bank account in the JP Morgan Chase bank in New York City.
The Land Bank then transferred the money to its Greenhills, San Juan branch,
where the AFP maintained an account, she said.
However, starting in 2003, upon the request of the AFP, the UN directly
remitted the reimbursements to the AFP account in UCPB-Alfaro branch.
Asked by Abaya and Rodriguez whether they are aware of a government
regulation requiring that all state agency receipts are to be remitted to the
national treasury, DFA Assistant Secretary Lesli Gatan gave an affirmative
answer.
"But we assumed that the AFP took care of the legal issues involved in the
transfer of the money," he said.
DFA officials also informed the defense committee that they have "frozen"
$3.3 million in UN reimbursements for government costs incurred by its
peacekeepers in Haiti.
"The DFA decided to withhold the release of the money because of questions
about deductions in the peacekeepers' monthly allowance of $1,028 and because of
the Garcia case," Consul Elmer Cato said, referring to the plunder case of
former AFP comptroller Carlos Garcia, and to deductions taken from the Filipino
peacekeepers' allowance from the UN.
Muntinlupa Rep. Rodolfo Biazon, defense committee chairman, said the AFP
reduced the allowance to $600.
Responding to questions from Biazon, AFP vice chief of staff Lt. Gen.
Reynaldo Mapagu said the AFP unilaterally cut the troops' UN compensation so it
could raise a "buffer fund for pre-deployment expenses like training and
immunization."
"We came up with a schedule under which the head of the peacekeeping mission
received the highest allowance of $1,028. But as of now, we are giving a $900
monthly allowance, regardless of the troops' rank," he said.
Biazon said Mapagu's statement means that the military continues to take $228
a month from the UN allowance of its soldiers involved in keeping the peace in
such hot spots abroad as Haiti, Liberia and the Golan Heights.
He said the AFP should not make its soldiers bear pre-deployment costs
"because we in Congress are providing funds for that in the AFP budget."
"For 2011, we have appropriated P80 million for pre-deployment expenses," he
said.
DFA officials also informed Biazon's committee that they are not aware of a
$5-million check supposedly picked up by a high-ranking military officer from UN
headquarters in New York City in 2001.
"We have no record of that, your honor," Gatan said.
Former government auditor Heidi Mendoza made the claim about the $5-million
UN remittance in the hearings of the House justice committee on the Garcia case.
Venue for political grandstanding
Meanwhile, Rep. Teodorico Haresco of the party-list group Ang Kasangga said
yesterday that the congressional inquiries into massive corruption in the AFP
should not end up as one of many unfinished and unproductive legislative
investigations.
Haresco said there should be positive results from these inquiries in terms
of remedial legislation that would institute reforms in the receipt and use of
public funds not only by the AFP but other agencies as well.
"Investigations in aid of legislation are necessary mandate but the practice
of having too many of these probes that end up without any corresponding
legislation is a complete waste of time and taxpayers' money," he said.
"It's very sad that after the press loses interest in a certain
investigation, members of Congress who are conducting the investigation also
lose interest in pursuing and in accomplishing the objective of the probe, which
is to craft the most appropriate legislation in relation to the subject of the
inquiry," Haresco added.
He pointed out that "what is sadder is the fact that some of these
investigations are turned into forums for political grandstanding, name-calling
and mudslinging that can ruin people's reputation and their way of life."
"Even so-called whistle-blowers who always emerge as heroes in these probes
complain of this sad reality and I can imagine the worse for those who are being
painted as villains," he stressed.
Haresco said the case of former Defense secretary Angelo Reyes, who killed
himself, is a clear example of how a congressional investigation can affect
people's lives.
"I just hope that this tragedy will result in something good and that is the
passage of a law that will address the problem of corruption not just in the AFP
but in the entire government bureaucracy," Haresco said.
Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr., chair of the House committee on justice that
conducted three hearings on the case of Garcia and the side issue of military
corruption, said they intend to propose remedial legislation.
"We are looking at some amendments in the plunder law, the Anti-Money
Laundering Act of 2001 and the law creating the Ombudsman's office," he said.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2011 by
PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All rights reserved
PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/phnotweet
This is the PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE (PHNO) Mailing List.
To stop receiving our news items, please send a blank e-mail addressed to: phno-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Please visit our homepage at: http://www.newsflash.org/
(c) Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------------------------Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phno/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phno/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
phno-digest@yahoogroups.com
phno-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
phno-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
