P108-M plunder rap filed vs Garcia

Don’t dip your hands in the cookie jar. Somebody’s watching you.

A group of lawyers launched an anti-corruption campaign yesterday with the filing of plunder charges against retired Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia.

Former solicitor general Francisco Chavez and lawyer Mario Ongkiko said their complaint before the Ombudsman is the first in a "series of plunder and anti-corruption charges" that "Operation Clean Hands" will file against public officials and the private individuals that connive with them.

In a press conference at the Sulô Hotel in Quezon City, Chavez described Operation Clean Hands as a non-stock and non-profit organization backed by nine prominent law firms.

"Operation Clean Hands will file cases upon its own initiative or upon the request of taxpayers or citizens who will come forward with sufficient evidence," he said.

Chavez and Ongkiko accused Garcia, former comptroller of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), of amassing ill-gotten wealth estimated to have reached P108 million.

"Garcia amassed at least P108.1 million by receiving cash and material gifts from persons or entities in connection with government contracts or projects of the military and by reason of his position," they said in their complaint.

Garcia’s alleged ill-gotten wealth is well in excess of the P50 million minimum required for a corruption case to be classed as plunder.

The two lawyers said Garcia amassed assets "patently disproportionate" to his "regular" income.

In their complaint, Chavez and Ongkiko listed the alleged assets of Garcia and his family, including eight vehicles worth P4.3 million, peso and foreign currency deposits spread across several bank accounts, and a condominium unit in New York.

"Indeed, Garcia’s regular income cannot possibly afford him the luxury of buying a P38-million condo in New York, several luxury vehicles and regular travels abroad with thousands of dollars as pocket money," they said.

Chavez and Ongkiko said Garcia’s income and allowances for the last few years were not sufficient to account for his assets.

Garcia declared a net income of P752,961 in 2001, P1 million in 2002 and P1.2 million in 2003, they said.

As an AFP officer, Garcia had a salary of only P170,361 in 2001 and P198,708 in 2002.

As a trustee of the Armed Forces & Police Savings and Loan Association Inc. (AFPSLAI), he received allowances of P460,333 in 2001, P767,000 in 2002 and P754,000 in 2003.

To support their assertion that Garcia acquired his assets through illicit means, Chavez and Ongkiko cited a statement by Garcia’s wife Clarita that her husband was not beyond accepting tokens of "gratitude."

"The gratitude money that he receives is common and unsolicited," they quoted Clarita as saying.

Chavez said he was dedicating the filing of the case against Garcia to the junior officers and enlisted soldiers that took part in the so-called "Oakwood" incident of 2003.

The officers, led by Navy Lt. S/G Antonio Trillanes and Army Capt. Gerardo Gambala, claimed they took over the Oakwood Hotel to protest what they saw as widespread corruption in the military.

Ongkiko said the government had merely charged Garcia with the relatively minor crimes of perjury and falsification of public documents to create the false impression that a proper case had been filed against Garcia.