DFA TRACING $5-MILLION CHEQUE FROM U.N. TO AFP
MANILA, FEBRUARY 13, 2011 (STAR) By Jess Diaz - The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has joined the search for an alleged $5-million check for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) that a former government auditor claims is missing.
DFA officials have told the House defense committee that they are verifying from the United Nations whether it had really issued a $5-million check representing reimbursement to the AFP for costs incurred in sending peacekeeping troops abroad.
They said they would inform the committee as soon as they receive a response from the UN.
Former government auditor and AFP corruption witness Heidi Mendoza has alleged that a high-ranking military officer personally picked up the check in January 2001 in New York.
DFA Assistant Secretary Lesli Gatan expressed doubts on whether the UN allowed an officer to get a check-reimbursement for the AFP.
Between 1999 and 2002, he said the UN coursed through the DFA reimbursements for the military.
He said once the checks were received, the DFA deposited them in an account in a bank in New York City that the Land Bank opened for the AFP.
Beginning in 2003, Gatan said the UN, upon request of the AFP, remitted the reimbursements to the United Coconut Planters Bank branch on Alfaro Street in Makati City, where the AFP maintained an account.
"I don't think that was possible," he answered when asked if the UN would have allowed an officer to pick up a $5-million check for the AFP.
Gatan's statements were consistent with those given by Land Bank president Gilda Pico before the House committee on justice, which looked into the plea bargaining agreement between the Ombudsman and former AFP comptroller Carlos Garcia.
Pico said UN checks were deposited in a Land Bank account in J. P. Morgan Chase bank in New York City and then transferred to the Land Bank branch in Greenhills, San Juan, where the AFP had an account.
"There was never a single $5-million check from the UN," she said.
DFA officials also informed the defense committee that the UN has remitted a total of $55 million to the AFP, including $3.3 million that it has frozen.
This is the amount which Muntinlupa Rep. Rodolfo Biazon, committee chairman, earlier claimed was missing, along with the supposed $5-million check.
"The DFA decided to withhold the release of the $3.3 million because of questions about deductions in the peacekeepers' monthly allowance of $1,028 and because of the Garcia case," Consul Elmer Cato said.
He said the amount represents the allowances of soldiers the AFP contributed to the UN peacekeeping contingent in Haiti.
Cato did not say by how much the troop allowance was reduced, but Biazon said he received complaints from peacekeepers that their UN compensation was cut by more than $428 to $600.
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.
Probe continues
With the death of former AFP chief Angelo Reyes triggering calls for an end to congressional inquiries into corruption in the military, Senate Blue Ribbon committee chairman Teofisto Guingona III said that the hearings would continue until it "comes to a rightful conclusion."
Reyes, who took his own life last Tuesday after being accused in a Senate hearing of pocketing millions of pesos in cash while he was chief of staff, was seen as a victim of trial by publicity by many of his friends and supporters.
People close to Reyes said it was the humiliation that he endured during the hearing that drove him to suicide.
But there are also calls for the Senate to continue its hearings and help identify those responsible for corrupting the Armed Forces.
"As senators of the land, there is a mandate we have to follow, a job we have to perform, and a mission we have to complete. We shall, therefore, make sure that this investigation comes to a rightful conclusion," Guingona said.
"As I stated earlier this week after news of his death reached me, I affirm the resolve of the Blue Ribbon committee to continue the investigation on allegations of anomalies at the Armed Forces of the Philippines," he added.
Guingona said a successful probe would help "this institution which Secretary Reyes served for a long time to regain the respect of our people."
Next to face the Senate – on Friday – are former chiefs of staff Diomedio Villanueva and Roy Cimatu. Whistleblower and former military budget officer George Rabusa has also accused the two of illegally receiving millions of pesos from the AFP.
Apart from Cimatu and Villanueva, the Senate has also invited Erlinda Yambao-Ligot, the wife of former military comptroller Jacinto Ligot, who allegedly purchased houses in the United States using AFP funds.
The Senate Blue Ribbon committee hearing was originally on the plea bargaining agreement between former military comptroller Carlos Garcia and special prosecutors from the Office of the Ombudsman. – With Marvin Sy
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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