Rabusa files plunder raps vs 3 ex-AFP chiefs, 14 officials

Manila, Philippines - Retired Lt. Col. George Rabusa, a former military budget officer who blew the whistle on alleged corruption in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), filed plunder charges yesterday with the Department of Justice (DOJ) against 17 officials, including three former AFP chiefs.

Rabusa showed up at the DOJ escorted by a handful of supporters, including nuns. The principal respondents in the criminal charges for violation of Republic Act 7080 or plunder were former AFP chiefs of staff Diomedio Villanueva, Roy Cimatu, and Efren Abu, and former comptrollers Lt. Gen. Jacinto Ligot and Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia.

The other respondents were Col. Cirilo Tomas Donato, Col. Roy Devesa, Maj. Emerson Angulo, retired Maj. Gen. Hilario Atendido, B/Gen. Benito de Leon, retired Lt. Col. Ernesto Paranis, Capt. Kenneth Paglinawan, Col. Gilbert Gapay, Maj. Gen. Epineto Logico and Col. Robert Arevalo.

Curiously, the latter was listed as having pocketed the biggest amount among the respondents, at more than half a billion pesos.

Civilian respondents were former Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) resident auditor Divina Cabrera and accountant Generoso del Castillo.

“Respondents took advantage of their official positions, authority, and influence to unjustly enrich themselves at the expense and to the damage and prejudice of the Filipino people and the Republic of the Philippines,” Rabusa said in his 86-page complaint filed through his lawyer Noel Malaya.

He said Villanueva, a graduate of the Philippine Military Academy Class 1968 who served as AFP chief from March 17, 2001 to May 18, 2002, pocketed at least P227.4 million of AFP funds.  – With Alexis Romero, Paolo Romero, Jaime Laude