Category: Military

We salute Heidi Mendoza

Published by Ellen on February 1, 2011

heidi mendoza at House hearing — Thanks to ABS-CBN for this photo

As long as there is a Heidi Mendoza, there is hope for the Filipino nation.

As astounding as the courage of Heidi Mendoza, former state auditor who investigated the case of retired Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia, was the refusal of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez and the government prosecutors to acknowledge the evidence even if they were staring on their face.

Mendoza’s testimony about the pressures she had to put up in uncovering military corruption was so moving especially when she tearfully appealed to spare her family from harm. “Maawa kayo sa akin. Maawa kayo sa mnga anak ko,” she pleaded adding that in coming out she didn’t want to hurt anybody.

A daughter of a policeman, she said she took on the challenge of investigating corruption in the military “to give honor to the soldiers who risk their lives in defense of the country.”

Garcia’s letter

Published by Ellen on January 30, 2011

I don’t know if retired Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia will confirm this if asked in a Senate hearing but I learned that when he was in detention, he wrote a letter addressed to three persons detailing his version of the multi-million (even billion) mess in the military that he was embroiled in.

The letters, I learned, were placed in the safekeeping of those three persons with the instruction that in case something happens to him, the contents of the letter would be divulged.

This should give sleepless nights to all those involved in grand theft of the money intended for the soldiers, who lay down their lives, for the country’s peace, stability and security and for the upgrading of military equipment, that have become a laughing stock in the region.

Naisalba ni Rabusa ang konsyensa at kaluluwa

Published by Ellen on January 29, 2011

Sa Senate hearing noong Huwebes, tinanong ni dating chief of staff ng Armed Forces of the Philippines Angelo Reyes si dating military budget officer Lt. Col. George Rabusa,”During the time that I was chief of staff, if I became greedy?” (Noong panahon na ako ang chief of staff, naging gahaman ba ako?

Ang talagang tumbok nang tanong ni Reyes ay kung siya ay naging madamot at sinusulo lang ang pera.
Sinupalpal siya ni Sen. Jinggoy Estrada: “Hindi isyu kung ikaw ay gahaman. Ang isyu ay kung ikaw ay corrupt na hepe ng Armed Forces. Anong paki-alam namin kung ikaw ay galante?”

Shocked talaga si Reyes sa paglitaw ni Rabusa na iba na ang tuno ng kinakanta. Kasama na dito si Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia, dating military comptroller na ang kanyang ma-eskandalong plea bargain agreement sa Ombudsman, ang ini-imbistiga ng Senado at House of Representatives. Pati na rin siguro si retired Lt. Gen. Jacinto Ligot, dating military comptroller din katulad ni Garcia at Rabusa ay inakusahan ng pandarambong sa pamagitan ng paggamit ng pera na para sa mga sundalo para sa kanilang pansariling kapakanan.

Reyes got P50M as ‘send-off’ money, says AFP exec

Published by Ellen on January 27, 2011

Kimberly Jane T. Tan, GMANews.TV

A former budget officer of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Thursday accused former Defense chief Angelo Reyes of receiving not less than P50 million as “pabaon” (send-off money) when he retired as military chief of staff in 2001.

“Upon retirement we give some amount to the retiring chief of staff,” bared former Army Col. George Rabusa during the Senate hearing on the controversial plea bargain agreement entered into by former AFP comptroller Maj. General Carlos Garcia and the Office of the Ombudsman.

Other highlights of the hearing:

-Special Prosecutor Wendell said in the light of the Rabusa testimony they may re-open the probe on Garcia.

-“I’m not applying to become a state witness,” Garcia said when asked by Trillanes the possibility of changing his mind and cooperate with the government.

Rabusa said he and then AFP comptroller Lt. Gen. Jacinto Ligot, his superior, personally brought the money to Reyes at the AFP chief of staff quarters dubbed as the “White House.”

Hindi na sana nag-iisa si Heidi

Published by Ellen on January 25, 2011

Nagulat ang marami sa pinakita ni Heidi Mendoza na P200 milyon na tsekeng pinirmahan ni dating Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia at sa kanyang kuwento kung paano pinaikot-ikot ng dating military comptroller ang pera hanggang naglaho na.

Si Mendoza ang government auditor na ang-imbestiga ng kaso ni Garcia na kinasuhan noong 2004 ng plunder o pandarambong sa halagang P303 milyon na pera para sa military.

Sa totoo lang noon pa yun nilabas ni Heidi nang siya ay tumestigo sa hearing ng kaso ni Garcia. Siya lang ang dumiin kay Garcia. Sabi niya 16 na beses siya tinawag ng korte. Nandyan na yung nililito siya sa mga pirma ni Garcia. Ngunit nanindigan siya.

The P200 million check: the smoking gun in Garcia plunder case

Published by Ellen on January 24, 2011

If the general public was appalled by the plea bargain agreement struck by Maj. Gen. (ret.) Carlos Garcia and the Office of the Ombudsman , one can just imagine how it was with Heidi Mendoza, the government auditor who was the lone prosecution witness who gave documentary evidence in the plunder case against the former military comptroller.

Mendoza, who withstood all kinds of pressure while she was investigating the Garcia plunder case, said it was so painful to hear and read government prosecutors say that the reason they had to accept Garcia’s offer for plea bargain was because the evidence was weak.

Related articles:

Prosecutors ‘dumped own witness’ by Jarius Bondoc: http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=650902&publicationSubCategoryId=64

Auditor in plunder case launches truth campaign: http://verafiles.org/main/focus/auditor-in-plunder-case-to-launch-truth-campaign/

Go slow on Garcia, auditor told: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20110125-316387/Go-slow-on-Garcia-auditor-told

Transcript of Mendoza Dec 3, 2008 testimony: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20110125-316389/No-one-from-COA-gave-me-the-support-that-I-needed

She said that’s what everybody was telling her and her team when they were investigating. Garcia was a smart guy, there was no paper trail in the more than P300 million that he was accused of filching from government funds.

Auditor in plunder case to launch truth campaign

Published by Ellen on January 23, 2011

By Yvonne T. Chua and Ellen Tordesillas
VERA Files

A former state auditor who testified against ex-military comptroller Carlos Garcia disclosed over the weekend a “request” from a government office for her to tell the public the evidence in the plunder case against the retired major general is weak.

For related documents: list of assets and properties, plea bargain agreement and the OSG intervention, click here -VERA Files.

But the request, made about a week after the Sandiganbayan on Dec. 16 allowed Garcia to post bail on the basis of his plea bargain agreement with special prosecutors, has only strengthened Heidi Mendoza’s resolve to reveal what she says is “the truth behind the Garcia case.”

“It is plunder; it is more than P50 million. I am standing by my story,” said Mendoza who left her job at a multilateral bank on Friday to embark on a “truthtelling” mission.

Plunder, the acquisition of ill-gotten wealth of at least P50 million by a public officer, is nonbailable and punishable by life imprisonment.

Mendoza, who headed a special six-member team the Commission on Audit detailed with the Office of the Ombudsman from 2004 to 2006 to investigate Garcia’s transactions, is the lone prosecution witness who told the court that the former comptroller committed plunder.

Auditor in Garcia case bares order to drop probe

Published by Ellen on January 21, 2011

From ABS-CBN:

(The Commission on Audit auditor who testified in the plunder case against former military comptroller Major General Carlos Garcia has broken her silence regarding her testimony in the Sandiganbayan, on the heels of the assertion by the special prosecutors of the Office of the Ombudsman that there was not enough evidence to convict Garcia of plunder. Heidi Mendoza, one of the main witnesses in the case, resigned from the Commission on Audit in 2006 after she was instructed to drop her investigation into the alleged anomalies involving AFP funds. Mendoza sat down with ABS-CBN’s Ces Oreña Drilon for an exclusive interview. — Eds.)

Heidi Mendoza thought she could just go on with her life and forget her court testimony before the Sandiganbayan. After all, she had landed a well-paying job in a regional financial institution. But like so many times in her life, Mendoza could not just sit back and be silent.

As she did in 2006, Mendoza recently resigned from her job so she could speak her mind. A 20-year veteran of the Commission on Audit (COA), Mendoza said her job to look into the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) fund mess began when Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo made a personal request to then COA Chairman Guillermo Carague for her to lead the team that will assist his office in the investigation of General Garcia.

Ang padrino ni Maj.Gen. Carlos Garcia

Published by Ellen on January 9, 2011

Update: Garcia’s P128 million now ‘beyond reach’

Naala-ala nyo ba noong 2009, nabalita na itinakda ng korte sa Amerika ang $2milyon (P92,000,000) na piyansa para sa dalawang anak ni Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia na si Ian Karl at Juan Paulo na nahulihan ng $100,000 sa San Francisco airport na hindi nila na-declare nang pumunta sila sa Amerika noong Pebrero 2003?

Ang tanong ng marami ay sino ang nagbayad noong $2 milyon na yun? Sobrang malaking pera yun. Naka-freeze ang mga bank deposits ng mga Garcia sa America.

Ngayon na nagkaroon ng plea bargain agreement si Garcia at ang Ombudsman ma maari na siyang lumaya basta magbayad lang siya ng P143.45 milyon sa kanyang ninakaw na P303 milyon (yun lang ang nakita ng pamahalaan. Posibleng meron pa), bumabalik na naman ang tanong na yan.

The honor of rebelling against a corrupt government

Published by Ellen on January 6, 2011

President Aquino’s grant of amnesty to members of the military who stood up against Gloria Arroyo’s misuse and abuse of presidential powers is a fulfillment of his promise to reshape Philippine society back to its moral state which has been misshapen so badly by Gloria Arroyo for nine years that she was in power.

How the amnesty was carried out to where it is now- the processing of applications of those who want to avail of the amnesty- is instructive of how to navigate around the various forces not only of the competing allies of the administration but also of the political opposition.

Aquino was elected overwhelmingly on the promise of reforms and a discontinuation of Arroyo’s perversion of the justice system for her interest.

But many in the government bureaucracy, having internalized Arroyo’s practice of twisting the law to suit her interest, could not comprehend the message of reform in Aquino’s electoral victory.

From the very beginning, even during the presidential campaign, Aquino was clear about his stand that Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and other Magdalo officers did not commit coup d’etat as defined in the Revised Penal Code. He also said continued detention of Magdalo soldiers was an injustice.