Sins of the father

Civil forfeiture is supposed to be easier than securing a criminal conviction. Confiscating ill-gotten assets in the still widening infrastructure corruption mess is seen as one of the low-hanging fruits in assuaging public outrage.

The Independent Commission for Infrastructure is working with several agencies to hasten such forfeiture proceedings. Assets of several of those implicated in the scandal have been frozen.

Those behind the efforts must ensure that any adult children used in the thievery must also suffer the consequences.

The forfeiture must be genuine and thorough instead of what we have seen in the past years, which was often token and allowed thieves to keep a considerable amount of ill-gotten wealth.

A case in point is that of retired military comptroller Carlos Flores Garcia. The former Army major general was accused of pocketing P303 million from 1993 to 2005. But under a plea bargain agreement he struck with the Office of the State Prosecutor, the original plunder complaint against him was downgraded to direct bribery and facilitating money laundering.

In exchange, he surrendered P135,433,387.84 in various assets to the state, and was freed on P60,000 bail on Dec. 16, 2010, just in time for the Christmas holidays.

Also as part of the plea bargain, Garcia’s accused co-conspirators – his wife Clarita and adult sons Ian Carl, Juan Paulo and Timothy Mark – were dropped from the case.

Garcia’s woes started when Clarita, in an attempt to save her sons from a criminal indictment for failing to declare $100,000 upon entry to the US, had blabbed to US customs authorities that there was more where the cash came from, since her husband was the comptroller of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Former state auditor Heidi Mendoza presented bank documents to back up the detailed findings of a six-member team of the Commission on Audit (COA) that plunder was committed by Garcia. Yet the plea bargain was endorsed by then special prosecutor Wendell Sulit ostensibly because the evidence was insufficient to prove plunder.

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Mendoza would later disclose pressure to go easy on the special COA probe, which was conducted amid military unrest over corruption in the AFP. Garcia was believed to be enjoying the protection of higher-ups during the administration of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. In 2006, with the audit team’s findings ignored, Mendoza quit the COA in disgust.

The ombudsman at the time, Merceditas Gutierrez, gave the plea bargain her blessing. Gutierrez would later be impeached, but she resigned before the case could go to trial and possibly cause her to lose her fat retirement benefits and pension.

Anti-corruption crusader Bongbong Marcos recycled Gutierrez, naming her to the board of the Government Service Insurance System. Following a recent run-in with its president/GM Arnulfo Veloso, Gutierrez quit the GSIS. But BBM quickly recycled her as chair of the National Commission of Senior Citizens.

In August last year, the Sandiganbayan issued a writ of execution, compelling Garcia to pay P406.3 million as fine for his bribery conviction and another P1.5 million for facilitating money laundering. The anti-graft court junked Garcia’s appeal to deduct the P135.4 million from the fine.

We don’t know if the court order has been executed, and if penalties are being imposed for failure to carry it out. Garcia, who was released from the New Bilibid Prison in August 2023 after 17 years behind bars, is claiming insolvency.

Perhaps the state can go after his family’s assets, especially since they all escaped accountability in the theft of public funds. Garcia’s son Timothy Mark used to be a publicist for Marc by Marc Jacobs. At age 25 when his father was arrested, Timothy lived in a one-room apartment at the posh Trump Plaza in Manhattan, reportedly bought by his mother in 2004 for a cool $765,000.

To remind you of the sordid details of this story, you can check out this link:

https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2009/10/01/509782/pity-tim-stylish-son-gen-garcia-ny

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Looters pass on their illegally amassed wealth to their children, who then claim that they didn’t do the looting, and that the sins of the father must not be visited on the children.

This mindset encourages the large-scale corruption that has plagued our plundered country for decades now. Public officials pocket state funds not only for themselves, but also for their children – to send them to the best and most expensive schools in the US and UK, to buy them all the baubles that they want, from Patek Philippe wristwatches to condos in Manhattan and seven luxury cars, one for every day of the week even when there’s no number coding. Such parents don’t want their kids to ever struggle to make a name in life.

And such parents are willing to suffer the consequences of amassing dirty money – even life in prison – in exchange for seeing their children set up for life.

I know even a former freedom fighter who built a reputation for integrity. In the twilight of his years when he earned high office, he was reprimanded by a colleague for engaging in corruption. The colleague, in disgust, later disclosed the ex-freedom fighter’s reaction: Papano naman ang mga anak ko?

He was getting on in years, he reportedly said, and he had to provide for his children.

I fear this mindset is the rule rather than the exception among our officials. Especially when they think there’s a reasonable chance of getting away with the thievery.

In stealing from the people, the thieves spread their loot among family members – spouses, children, mistresses and their children – and occasionally, even loyal, trusted aides.

Laundered funds are not just parked in the bank accounts of children, but are also invested in the kids’ start-up enterprises. Ill-gotten wealth is also used by the younger generations to finance their election campaigns and entry into politics, to redeem the names of disgraced parents and perpetuate the dynasty.

If the current anti-corruption crackdown is sincere and meant to impart indelible lessons, it must proceed with the idea that anyone who profits from dirty money must suffer the consequences.

Garcia got to keep nearly P167.6 million of the P303 million he was accused of stealing. Timothy probably kept his Manhattan condo.

There are many parents who would willingly rot in prison to leave even half of P167.6 million to their children. There must be no reward in any form for stealing public funds.