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Major General Carlos Garcia -
The following articles were taken from www.inq7.net.
Garcia
took P44M to US
Wife, 2 sons helped move money, say documents
AT LEAST $785,630 -- or P43,995,280 -- was transferred to the United States by Major General Carlos F. Garcia and his family in the past 11 years, according to documents from an investigation conducted by the Ombudsman.
Citing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) records, the Ombudsman report said the money was carried by Garcia, his wife Clarita and two of their sons, Ian Carl and Juan Paolo, during six trips to the United States between 1993 and 2004.
The last transaction, involving $308,000, was brought from the Philippines and deposited in the Citibank branch at One Park Avenue, New York, on Jan. 15, 2004, the report said.
The documents also showed that:
A day earlier, on Jan. 14, Clarita Garcia arrived in San Francisco and declared to the US Customs and Border Patrol that she had $204,230 in her possession.
On May 10, 2003, she declared she was carrying $48,000.
On Dec. 17, 2003, she declared that she was carrying $100,000.
Two days later, on Dec. 19, Ian Carl and Juan Paolo Garcia were held by Customs and Border Patrol after they failed to declare that they were traveling with $100,000.
The Ombudsman report said Garcia declared that he was carrying $15,000 when he arrived
in the United States on Nov. 4, 1993, to pursue a master's degree at the Naval
Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. On Aug. 1, 1995, he again declared $10,400.
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez yesterday said the Philippine government had formally
asked US authorities to freeze the Garcia assets in the United States.
Gonzalez said it was the Anti-Money Laundering Council that made the formal request through the RP-US Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty.
The US Department of Homeland Security has so far identified three Garcia assets -- a $765,000 Trump Park Avenue Condominium at 502 Park Avenue, New York; a $750,000 apartment at 222 East 34th Street, also in New York, and a house at 625 Vancouver Drive, Westerville, Ohio.
While the value of the Ohio house remains undetermined, it is the known US address of the general's wife and their sons Ian Carl, Juan Paolo and Timothy Mark. All four are American citizens.
Garcia, a 1971 graduate of the Philippine Military Academy, was assigned to the Armed Forces Corps of Engineers (CE) from 1971 to 1989. He served in the logistics office from 1989 to 1996, and was then recalled to the CE where he served in various capacities, including as chief of engineers from May 29, 2000 to March 27, 2001.
He was named AFP deputy chief of staff for comptrollership on March 28, 2001. He draws a monthly salary of P37,000.
Flights
Citing records from the Bureau of Immigration, the Ombudsman report said Garcia and his wife left for Amsterdam on Dec. 7, 2003, and returned to the Philippines on Dec. 29.
It was in the same month that the Garcia sons left Manila on board a Philippine Airlines flight to San Francisco, where they were held by customs authorities for failing to declare the $100,000.
On Jan. 14, 2004, Clarita Garcia left Manila on board a Northwest Airlines flight to Nagoya, immigration records showed.
On May 10, 2002, she and her two sons took a PAL flight to San Francisco, but only Juan Paolo returned to the Philippines on May 29.
The Ombudsman looked into the Garcias' travels and financial transactions after David Meisner, an attaché from the ICE at the US Embassy sent a letter saying that the US Department of Homeland Security was investigating the family for "violating US money laundering laws," the report said.
Meisner attached to the letter a sworn statement by Clarita Garcia to the ICE agents that the currency confiscated from her sons was "gratitude money" from Philippine companies that were awarded military contracts to build roads, bridges and houses for the military, the report said.
Meisner's letter was dated Sept. 14, 2004. The Ombudsman started the investigation on Sept. 17.
Ten days later, investigators filed a formal complaint and recommended Garcia's preventive suspension.
'We have to be careful'
Gonzalez, however, said authorities should be careful in looking into the assets of Garcia and other generals suspected of corruption.
"Let's look at the assets that were illegally acquired. Not all of them are illegal," he said, adding:
"We cannot just be running amuck here."
Gonzalez said some of the generals' assets might have been acquired while prices were still low.
"I got my house [in Manila] at P700 per square meter in 1981. Now it's worth P35,000 [per sq.m.]," he said. "We have to be careful, or nobody would consider joining the government."
Malacañang also appealed to the opposition not to drag the whole AFP down.
"The opposition should not use the Garcia issue to rake up muck against the whole institution," said Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's spokesperson.
Bunye said errant military officers were already "being sacked and brought to justice."
"There are many generals who have stuck to the line of duty and the code of integrity," he said, adding that "through the majority of honest and faithful soldiers, the AFP can redeem itself."
The Court of Appeals ordered on Wednesday a freeze of the Garcias' 40 bank accounts in the country after finding that "probable cause exists that an unlawful activity and/or a money-laundering offense is about to be, is being, or has been committed."
Solicitor General Alfredo Benipayo said these accounts contained "large amounts of money believed to constitute proceeds of illegal activities..."
Arroyo satisfied
Bunye said the President was satisfied with the way the AFP leadership was handling the investigation of senior officers and believed that the reforms she wanted were being implemented.
Ms Arroyo, however, said last week that it was she who had ordered the AFP to subject Garcia to a court-martial.
Malacañang also rejected a proposal by opposition Senator Edgardo Angara to turn Garcia into a state witness to encourage him to spill the beans on his superiors and other officials who might have benefited from corruption in the military.
Bunye said in a Radio Mindanao Network interview that this proposal was "premature" because it had not been established that Garcia had accomplices and that he was the least guilty among them.
He reiterated Malacañang's position that the guilty parties should be penalized, and said the investigations being conducted by the Ombudsman and Congress should be transparent and open to the public.
'Verbal directive'
AFP Chief of Staff General Narciso Abaya has ordered Garcia's transfer from the University of Santo Tomas Hospital in Manila to the AFP Medical Center on V. Luna Street, Quezon City, "as soon as his health allows it," Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Lucero told reporters.
Lucero, chief of the AFP Public Information Office, denied that the military leadership was helpless in moving Garcia from the private hospital, and said Abaya's "verbal directive" would be carried out "as ordered."
He did not give a specific time for the transfer.
Surigao del Sur Representative Prospero Pichay Jr., co-chair of the powerful Commission on Appointments, called on Abaya to work double-time during the remaining days of his term to resolve Garcia's case.
For starters, Abaya should immediately convene the court-martial to try Garcia, Pichay said.
Abaya reaches the mandatory retirement age of 56 on Oct. 29.
Pichay said the Commission on Appointments would thoroughly vet the next AFP chief to ensure that he would be able to institute reforms in the military.
"We must determine whether he has any participation in corruption similar to Garcia's," the congressman said. "A dirty chief of staff will just help perpetuate the corruption prevalent in the military."
With reports from Juliet Labog-Javellana, Alcuin Papa and Carlito Pablo
Garcia
keeps mouth shut
General invokes right to silence
AT LEAST 20 times, Major General Carlos F. Garcia invoked his right to remain silent.
Facing the nation for the first time yesterday in a televised standing-room-only congressional hearing, the man alleged to have amassed tens of millions of pesos in unexplained wealth dodged questions about his assets.
Garcia's silence seemed telling enough. It was so telling that House Minority Leader Francis Escudero was provoked into asking him point-blank if he was protecting other people.
"You have claimed no less than probably 30 or 50 times your right against self-incrimination," Escudero said, sounding exasperated. "For the record, sir, are you protecting your right against incrimination or the interests of others to be incriminated?"
Garcia stammered with his reply: "Your Honor, I would like to make it clear that I am invoking my right against self-incrimination."
It was the first time that the general, who had allegedly brought about P44 million into the United
States the past 11 years while living on a salary of P37,000 a month, had agreed to appear before the House committees on defense and banks.
The committees, which had held three previous hearings without Garcia honoring their invitation to appear, were looking into allegations of corruption in the Armed Forces.
At one point during the hearing, Garcia squelched reports that he could be a state witness.
Asked by Representative Allan Peter Cayetano (NP, Taguig-Pateros) if he had any plans to apply for the status of state witness, Garcia said: "I am not applying to be a state witness. I have nothing to testify."
Before invoking the right-to-silence mantra over and over, the suspended former Armed Forces comptroller told the lawmakers: "With due respect, I would like to answer the question before the Ombudsman, the Court of Appeals and the military court."
Try as they might, congressmen failed to elicit specific replies from Garcia regarding his supposed wealth, which exploded into a scandal after news broke that US customs authorities last December had confiscated $100,000 in cash from his two sons upon their arrival in San Francisco, California.
Frustrated at every turn, the lawmakers then turned the heat on Garcia's superior, Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Narciso Abaya.
"He (Abaya) didn't appear shocked. It's as if the amount involved is only P5," said Cayetano, who made the observation after Abaya recounted what AFP General Headquarters did on learning about the December 2003 incident involving Garcia's sons.
Asked directly by Cayetano why he didn't seem shocked that a general had $100,000, or more than P5 million in cold cash, Abaya merely replied: "I would say it (the amount) was abnormal."
Cayetano pressed on, saying Abaya could have acted "more aggressively" than merely transferring Garcia in March from the post of AFP deputy chief of staff for comptrollership (J-6) to J-5, or the post of AFP deputy chief of staff for plans.
Cayetano said the AFP chief of staff should have registered a stronger reaction as graft and corruption in the military had been one of the major issues raised in the July 2003 military mutiny in Makati by more than 300 junior officers and enlisted men.
Abaya, however, noted later that the AFP leadership had reviewed Garcia's statement of assets, liabilities and net worth and determined that the general's declared assets did "not justify the cash."
Immune to anomalies
"He (Garcia) has no capacity for having his son bring such money (to the United States)," Abaya said.
Representative Imee Marcos (KBL, Ilocos Norte) said that the military hierarchy had become "inured to anomalies" such that the public no longer expected any serious cleansing in the military ranks.
Marcos said that only a handful of officers were rotated in the major positions at AFP General Headquarters, particularly those concerning funds.
Abaya responded: "I don't think that's a correct statement."
Representative Luis Villafuerte (Kampi, Camarines Sur), for his part, demanded a list of generals and colonels who had investments of at least P5 million in the AFP and Police Savings and Loan Association Inc. (AFPSLAI).
Garcia was earlier reported to have withdrawn a total of P19 million from AFPSLAI.
Abaya said that while he chaired the AFPSLAI, he did not exercise operational control over the savings and loan association.
Golez moves in
The hearings had hardly begun when Representative Roilo Golez (Kampi, Parañaque), chair of the defense committee, immediately put Garcia against the wall by asking questions about affidavits that Garcia's wife and sons had executed concerning the $100,000 seized by US officials.
That was when Garcia began to invoke his right to remain silent.
Golez told the general that he had been ill-advised by his lawyer with his insistence on refusing to answer questions.
But Garcia, who appeared with legal counsel Constantino de Jesus, did not budge.
One after the other, documents executed by Garcia's sons and wife Clarita, which sought to justify the Garcia sons' possession of $100,000, were presented by Golez.
One of the questions by Golez which Garcia refused to answer dealt with Clarita's affidavit in which she purportedly said her husband received gratitude money and other benefits from firms which had won military contracts. She also supposedly said that in her travels, she was provided with up to $20,000 for shopping and other expenses.
Elusive witness
Garcia would only say that the documents were in photocopies and that the signatures appearing there appeared to be the signatures of his wife and sons.
Garcia even refused to sign the documents to affirm that he recognized the signatures of his wife and sons.
Representative Eladio Jala (Lakas, Bohol) said that if Garcia did not want to answer, the general could just provide the House committee with his legal briefs to be submitted to the Ombudsman.
Garcia said: "These (his cases) are still under litigation before the Ombudsman, CA and (AFP) Headquarters."
Garcia, however, said that he would like to "show courtesy and respect" to the congressmen by later submitting the documents to the House.
"I would be more than willing to furnish the documents," Garcia said.
Garcia cited ill health in refusing to testify previously. He was discharged from the University of Santo Tomas hospital on Sunday and has been restricted to his quarters, under heavy guard, at Camp Aguinaldo.
Marcos, in a statement later, said a group of defense contractors and retired and active military officers were putting together a P50-million fund to stop ongoing inquiries into the ill-gotten wealth of AFP generals.
'Bribe and blackmail'
Marcos said she had "insider information" about these efforts to stop the probe of generals.
Marcos did not provide details except to say that P16 million had been raised so far for the "war chest."
"These people have started getting fidgety. They are making sure they have all the bases covered," Marcos said.
"The group has started dredging filth to bribe and blackmail people into silence. They have well-paid people now digging muck against potential key witnesses and even those leading the investigation," Marcos said.
Malacañang's stand
Malacañang yesterday conceded that Garcia could not be forced to incriminate himself at the congressional hearings.
"It goes without saying that the President would like the truth to come out but, of course, without prejudice to the exercise of legitimate rights by persons who are facing investigation," Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said in a press briefing, when asked if President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had instructed the AFP to cooperate with the congressional inquiry.
Bunye said Malacañang respected the prerogative of the House to conduct an investigation of Garcia's alleged unexplained wealth.
"The general invoked a right which is provided for under our laws so I guess there's a way by which the legislators can arrive at the truth using other pieces of evidence," he said.
US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone said the investigation into alleged military corruption showed that "all the various elements of Philippine democracy are working."
With a report from Juliet Labog-Javellana and TJ Burgonio
ONE NEED not look far in investigating Major General Carlos F. Garcia over his alleged ill-gotten wealth.
His family has pieces of real estate in the hometown of his wife Clarita in Dumangas in Iloilo province. The assets worth at least P16 million include a farm resort, a caregiver school and a mango plantation.
In Baguio City, as many as four parcels of land are in the name of Garcia and his children.
The City Assessor's Office (CAO) said it had found four houses and lots under the names of Carlos Garcia, Carlos F. Garcia, Carlos R. Garcia, and Ian Carl, Juan Paulo and Timothy Mark Garcia.
Ian Carl, Juan Paolo and Timothy Mark are the sons of the embattled former comptroller of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Ricky Tactay, assessment officer of the CAO, said that he was not sure if the "R" in the Carlos R. Garcia was an "F" in the original papers. He said the CAO was going to further check the records of the property.
If all the lands and houses
in the name of Garcia in Baguio were indeed his, then he has real estate with a total land area of 2,500 sq. m. valued at more than P2.65 million in the city.
The assets in Iloilo, which Garcia and his wife claimed to be among the sources of their income after he was investigated for unexplained wealth, are all losing money, according to audited financial statements submitted to the Western Visayas office of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Swimming pools, aviary
The couple's biggest asset is IJT Katamnan Corp., which operates a farm resort in Barangay Pulao in Dumangas town, 42 km northeast of Iloilo City.
Dumangas is the hometown of Garcia's wife Clarita Depakakibo-Garcia.
The three-hectare resort, which is touted to be the first of its kind in Western Visayas, has various amenities, including a fishing lagoon, swimming pools, a children's playground and picnic areas.
It also has camping grounds, an aviary, butterfly farm, mango-picking grounds, function rooms and native-style cottages.
The resort was registered with the SEC on April 19, 2002 but started operating in November 2002. Its assets reached P15.3 million but it registered a net loss of P1,294,635.87 last year.
IJT International Caregiver Center Inc., located in Barangay Tabuc Suba in Jaro district in Iloilo City, was registered with the SEC on June 3, 2003. It started operating two months later.
The center offers courses in care-giving and review classes for medicine and nursing board examinations. Its total assets reached P1,032,496.95. It reported a net loss of P447,056.83 last year.
SEC records showed that another family-owned company, IJT Mango Orchard Inc., which was registered on Nov. 15, 2002, had no operational income last year.
The names of these assets were apparently taken from the initials of Garcia's three sons who, like their mother, are American citizens.
Holy Ghost Road
Tactay said the lots in Baguio City in the name of the Garcias were on Holy Ghost Road in the Quirino-Magsaysay subdivision and in Loakan, but only the assets in Loakan could be those of the general.
The lot owned by Carlos F. Garcia is on Demonstration Road, which was later named Cliff Drive in Loakan Proper.
The lot, with property index No. 102-06-018-05-108, is 1,000 sq. m. and has a unit value of P410 per sq. m. or a market value of P410,000. It was declared a Garcia property in 2001.
The house has an area of 213.5 sq. m. and has a market value of P1.182 million. It was declared a Garcia property in 2002.
The lot given to the sons is 260 meters from the road and is 1,000 sq. m.
Edna Rimando, chief of the records and statistics office of the CAO, said the remoteness and topography of the lots had reduced their market value.
The two lots apparently have a common neighbor, according to the boundaries given by the CAO. The property of Garcia is west of Lot No. 107 while that of his sons' is located east of Lot No. 107.
Padlocked
Garcia built a two-story, colonial-style house on the lot under his name.
The house, which was padlocked two weeks ago, according to a caretaker, has a gazebo and a trellis above the front door.
There is a separate structure on the left, which could be the garage or the guardhouse. The house reportedly has six bedrooms.
The property owned by a certain Carlos Garcia is a house and lot at 134 Upper QM subdivision. The residential lot has an area of 244 sq. m. with a market value of P200,080, while the house has a market value of P351,730. The house and lot were declared the property of Carlos Garcia in 2001.
The other property, this time under the name of Carlos R. Garcia, is a lot in Holy Ghost subdivision with an area of 246 sq. m. and a total market value of P56,580. On it is a small structure with a market value of P40,080.
Tactay said the property in Holy Ghost subdivision and the one in QM subdivision might not belong to the general.
Major General Carlos Garcia,
we salute you for making us ill!
You make the Filipinos sick, too.
~ Pisara ng Balitaktakan ~
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