Former AFP chief faces perjury raps before Sandigan

Retired Armed Forces chief general Lisandro Abadia has been charged with two counts of perjury before the Sandiganbayan for allegedly lying under oath in claiming that he earned a substantial amount of money from the sale of properties and shares of stock.

Assistant Special Prosecutor Elvira Chua said two separate cases for violation of Article 183 of the Revised Penal Code have been filed against Abadia.

The retired general lied in his statement of assets and liabilities (SAL) filed in 1992 and 1993, she added.

She recommended bail of P6,000 for the two cases.

Chua said Abadia committed the first offense in 1992 when he declared that his family income for that year included the sale of real property amounting to P25 million.

The following year, Abadia reported in his SAL the sale of shares in Palawan Oil and Gas Corp. amounting to P4.2 million as part of his family income, she added.

However, Chua said Abadia actually earned the P4.2 million in 1994.

"The said amount (P4.2 million) was earned only in 1994, and was only included in his SAL for the year ending December 1993 to justify the remarkable increase in his net worth by P7.1 million," she said.

On the other hand, the Office of the Special Prosecutor rejected Abadia’s claim that he had earned the P2.5 million from the sale of real property.

Abadia is also facing a civil suit before the Sandiganbayan for the forfeiture of P11.2 million in alleged ill-gotten wealth, and a P277-million graft case involving questionable loans under the Armed Forces Retirement and Separation Benefits System.

"Considering Abadia’s declared net worth as of December 1993 per his statement of assets and liabilities is P13.6 million, and comparing his computed net worth of P2.3 million, Abadia has clearly accumulated unexplained wealth of P11.2 million," a government prosecutor said.

Investigators of the Office of the Ombudsman did not give credence to Abadia’s claim that the P2.5 million came from his wife’s sale of real property since he had not submitted any deed of sale, receipt, checks, or other evidence to prove this.

Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo has upheld the findings of a team headed by Dennis Garcia, which found Abadia liable for accumulating unexplained wealth amounting to P31 million between December 1986 and April 1994. — Delon Porcalla