Ex-AFP officers given more time to answer plunder raps

MANILA, Philippines -  The Department of Justice (DOJ) yesterday allowed three former military chiefs and 19 others implicated in the plunder complaint of former military budget officer retired Lt. Col. George Rabusa more time to submit their answer to the accusations.

The DOJ panel headed by Prosecutor General Claro Arellano granted the request made by former AFP chiefs Diomedio Villanueva, Roy Cimatu and Efren Abu and the others for more time to submit their counter-affidavits.

The respondents were given until July 28 to comply since most of them were not ready to file their respective answers.

Other respondents include former military comptrollers Jacinto Ligot and Carlos Garcia, Northern Luzon chief Lt. Gen. Gaudencio Pangilinan, retired Maj. Gen. Ernesto Boac, 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, Col. Robert Arevalo, and Maj. Gen. Epineto Logico; former Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) resident auditor Divina Cabrera, state auditors Arturo Besana, Crisanto Gabriel and Manuel Warren, and accountant Generoso del Castillo.

In his complaint filed last April, Rabusa submitted details and documents supporting his allegations of corruption in the military through misappropriation and conversion of funds, which he had exposed in congressional inquiries some three months ago.

“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,” he alleged.