ENSURE PROTECTION OF EX-STATE AUDITOR MENDOZA! / IMMUNITY FOR RABUSA
MANILA, FEBRUARY 4, 2011 (STAR) By Helen Flores - The outpouring of support for former state auditor Heidi Mendoza continued yesterday as several groups urged the government to ensure her protection to help sustain her uncovering of corruption in government.
Support from Mendoza came pouring in from several quarters, including militant groups, the Church, legislators and government officials.
The militant women's group Gabriela said the government should secure the safety of Mendoza for her guts in exposing the corruption committed by former Armed Forces comptroller Carlos Garcia.
"We assure her that the Filipino women are backing her as she goes after the corrupt officials like Garcia," Gabriela secretary-general Lana Linaban said.
Linaban said Mendoza's expose is a challenge to the Aquino administration's determination to reform the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
"It is downright immoral that while majority of the Filipinos are drained with the current price hikes, high ranking officials in the AFP are wallowing in millions stolen from the public coffers," Linaban said.
Mendoza led a team from the Commission on Audit (COA) that looked into military deals and testified on allegedly suspicious transactions involving Garcia and his family, who were charged with a P303-million plunder case.
Mendoza revealed before the House of Representatives on Tuesday the millions of missing funds in the AFP.
She also revealed the P50 million taken from the P200-million United Nations fund intended to reimburse the expenses during the peacekeeping operations expenses; and the US$5 million for equipment reimbursement.
Mendoza appeared before the House committee on justice to testify on the plea bargaining agreement that allowed Garcia to plead to a lesser offense and post bail.
Mendoza insisted there was strong evidence to convict Garcia of plunder, belying the claims of government prosecutors that the evidence is not enough to pin down the former general.
Her explosive testimony triggered an outpouring of support from lawmakers who also assured her of ample protection.
Some 20 Catholic bishops earlier signed a manifesto declaring their support to Mendoza.
"As bishops, we support and encourage such people. We are with Mendoza in speaking out against abuse of office that impoverishes the people and harm the common good," the bishops said.
The Church-run Radio Veritas reported that with more whistleblowers coming out to expose anomalies and irregularities in the government, the radio station and Caritas Manila are planning to create their own Church Witness Protection Program.
Fr. Anton Pascual, president of Radio Veritas and executive director of Caritas Manila, said the government has not been able to provide adequate protection to whistleblowers including Mendoza.
"Since the Catholic Church supports those who are willing to expose irregularities in the government, we are prepared to put up our own Witness Protection Program. This would be called the Church Witness Protection Program that would protect the common good of the Filipino people," Pascual said.
The Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines (AMRSP) said they are willing to provide sanctuary to Mendoza, just like what they did to Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr., the whistleblower in the aborted NBN-ZTE deal.
Sr. Mary John Mananzan of the AMRSP said that they would offer the same sanctuary to Mendoza.
Mananzan said that they would extend such assistance because of Mendoza's credibility as a witness.
"I think it is very courageous of her. Keep it up and we are with you," she said. –With Evelyn Macairan, Sandy Araneta
FROM MALAYA BUSINESS INSIGHT
De Lima favors immunity for Rabusa; Says whistleblower's testimony to strengthen government case BY EVANGELINE DE VERA
FORMER Lt. Col. George Rabusa yesterday submitted to the Department of Justice an initial affidavit on fund anomalies in the military as he asked to be placed under the witness protection program.
The former AFP budget officer turned whistleblower also asked for immunity from suit, and he might get it.
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said under normal circumstances, Rabusa should be prosecuted for his confession of benefiting from the fund irregularities, but said he might be spared because of his being the whistleblower.
"He's a participant, but even though he squealed, necessarily meron din siya accountability but precisely in big cases like this, di ito magpo-prosper kung wala ang testimony niya...That's why the law provides for immunity for certain cases," she said.
Rabusa, in a Senate hearing Thursday last week, accused Angelo Reyes of receiving around P100 million while he was AFP chief, and some P50 million as send-off money or "pabaon" when he retired in 2001. He said other military heads benefited from "pabaon."
Rabusa is expected to appear again today, and reveal more, at the Senate when the Blue Ribbon committee resumes the inquiry.
Among those who were also invited to the second hearing were former AFP comptroller Carlos Garcia who is accused of amassing some P303 million while in service, Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, former AFP chiefs, former comptroller Jacinto Ligot, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, Solicitor General Jose Anselmo Cadiz, and Col. Antonio Lim.
According to Rabusa, Lim was one of those present when he (Rabusa) and Ligot delivered the P50 million in dollar denomination to Reyes as "pabaon" for his retirement in March 2001. Lim is still in active military service.
Rabusa, accompanied by lawyer Noel Malaya at the DOJ, declined to give copies of his affidavit to the media, saying a more detailed affidavit will be submitted on Monday after he has completed his testimony before the Senate.
Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago advised her brother, Benjamin Defensor who served as AFP chief from Sept. 10 to Nov. 28, 2002, to tell the truth if he has any knowledge of irregularity in the AFP.
She said she would inhibit if her brother would be called to the inquiry.
"I'll tell him, just tell the truth... kapag ginawa mo, aminin mo. Wala tayong magagawa…Kung hindi mo ginawa, mamilit ka. Marunong ka naman dahil PMA graduate ka. Mag-isip ka kung paano mo mabigyan ng kalakasan ang pagsabi mo na wala kang natanggap because the presumption is always innocence," she said.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Francis Escudero said Rabusa's revelations have affected the defense and military establishments, including the morale of the soldiers on the field.
"I'm saddened because I was head of that department for 17 years. I did not have any problem of that kind…there is a need to cleanse it. The only way to cleanse this is to let the axe fall on the heads of whoever is guilty of misbehavior," Enrile said. He was defense minister in the Marcos administration and in the Aquino I administration for a short period.
Escudero, chairman of the Senate committee on national defense and security, said investigations should not destroy the military institution.
He said Reyes, Garcia, Ligot and their like are not the Armed Forces.
"They are the just the little dirty party in the military. The biggest party is still made up of men … who live and die in the name of the country's freedom and democracy," he said.
At the House, minority leader Edcel Lagman said Enrile and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. should discuss the possibility of a joint inquiry "which will focus on the alleged payola (in the AFP)."
"We have done this before with respect to the agrarian reform, Garchitorena land scandal. This was conducted both by the House and Senate committees on agrarian reform," he said.
The justice committee is investigating the plea bargaining agreement forged by Garcia with the Ombudsman, which allowed him to escape prosecution for his P303 million plunder case.
Kabataan party-list Rep. Raymond Palatino said the 2010 Commission on Audit report on the AFP's budget for fiscal year 2008 and 2009 would show P2.7 billion questionable transactions.
He noted the total amount is more than what Rabusa and another whistleblower, Heidi Mendoza, have exposed.
He said among COA findings in its 2010 Department of National Defense budget notes are:
A P1.84-billion fund for the 14 AFP was suspended because of the realignment of the fund.
P45.89 million reimbursements from the Balikatan exercises were not deposited to the Bureau of the Treasury despite COA's recommendation to do so.
Of P174.48 million intended for the advances to officers and employees, 99 percent was extended to another office, the general headquarters, and remains unliquidated as of Dec. 31, 2008.
P186.6 million and P69 million of undelivered items procured through the Philippine International Trading Center and DBM Procurement Service.
Palatino said the findings tend to show that corruption in the military might have continued "even up to 2009" despite reforms instituted in the military after the Garcia anomalies were discovered in 2004. – With JP Lopez and Wendell Vigilia
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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