Prosecutors score delay in issuance of arrest warrant vs Garcia

Prosecutors handling the P303.2-million plunder case against retired major general Carlos Garcia are growing impatient over the "unusual" delay by the Sandiganbayan in issuing a warrant for his arrest.

"Naiinip na kami (We are getting tired of waiting). The public is inquiring what happened to the case," Chief Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa Ignacio told The STAR.

It has been more than a month since prosecutors filed charges of plunder and perjury before the Sandiganbayan against Garcia and his family. They are also seeking the forfeiture of all the Garcias’ assets.

Villa Ignacio, however, said that part of the reason for the delay may have been because the justices of the Sandiganbayan’s second division held an out-of-town trial in Cebu this week.

"But they should have prioritized this because this is where the public is focused. This is unusual (the delay in the issuance of arrest warrants). As far as we know, this has already been submitted for resolution," he added.

Rumors have it that Garcia and his classmates in the Philippine Military Academy Class ’71 are helping him to get off the hook.

Defense lawyers Jose Bautista and Constantino de Jesus are asking Justices Edilberto Sandoval, Francisco Villaruz, and Rodolfo Ponferrada to defer the issuance of warrants against Garcia, his wife Clarita and children Ian Carl, Juan Paolo and Timothy Mark until after a judicial determination of probable cause is completed.

They have argued that the statement submitted by Clarita to United States customs authorities could not be used against their client since it was prepared without the assistance of a lawyer. In the statement, she defended her sons Ian Carl and Juan Paolo after US customs agents caught them bringing in $100,000 each at an international airport in December 2003. The limit is at $10,000.

Clarita told US immigration agent Matthew van Dyke in April 2004 that the money confiscated from her children was just part of the "gratitude money" her husband regularly received when he was comptroller of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

According to her submitted statement: "The expense money, gratitude money and shopping money is not declared as income. As the comptroller, my husband handles all budgets for the AFP. He also receives cash for travel expenses from the businesses that are awarded contracts."

Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo held Garcia and his entire family responsible for having "conspired and connived" with the retired officer to conceal his true assets by being the recipients of properties and holders of bank accounts.

Contrary to what Garcia declared in his annual statements of assets and liabilities — which listed his net worth as P3.2 million from 1993 to 2003 — investigators discovered real estate properties and cash in "staggering amounts," which included dollar accounts under his and his family’s name.

"Beyond this amount (of P3.2 million), therefore, his funds, properties, and assets can only be ill-gotten," Marcelo wrote in his resolution, noting that this amount represents Garcia’s "optimum level and maximum amount of net worth by 2003 which could be lawfully sustained by his income."

Marcelo said Garcia’s family, "despite their apparent lack of financial capacity, they held in their names funds and properties of staggering amounts and proportions."

He also noted that bank accounts held by the Garcias "were opened in the name of family members either on the same day or almost successively."

Last April 16, Garcia’s lawyers said Clarita is still in the country and will surface to answer plunder charges against her and her family once a warrant for her arrest is issued.

De Jesus told the anti-graft court’s second division that Garcia’s sons are "abroad," most likely in the US.

Garcia, who has been detained inside the compound of the Intelligence Services of the AFP at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City since November 2004, is also facing charges before the military court for failing to declare several cars and properties in the Philippines and the US in his annual statements of assets, liabilities and net worth during his three-year tenure as AFP comptroller and for holding a US residency visa while serving in the military.

His wife and children were earlier reported to be American citizens. The American government has since confiscated Garcia’s green card since he does not maintain residency in the US.

Prosecutors have expressed fears that Garcia and his wife pose a flight risk, an allegation that was denied by the Garcias’ lawyers.