Garcia denies ownership of some properties in plunder case

Former military comptroller Maj. General Carlos Garcia on Tuesday appeared before a congressional investigation and denied owning some properties included in the over P300 million plunder case filed against him in 2005. Garcia said the government did not validate whether he indeed owned properties in the United States, supposedly amounting to $1.4 million. “These reports are not validated, but these were published in the papers," Garcia told members of the House committee on justice conducting an inquiry on the controversial plea-bargain deal he entered into with special prosecutors last year. Reiterating statements by officials from the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) of the Office of the Ombudsman early this month, Garcia said he did not own properties in the US. “There are properties listed in the information that are not mine," he said. Assistant Special Prosecutor Jose Balmeo Jr. earlier said the US properties originally listed in plunder case did not actually belong to Garcia's family based on the OSP’s investigation. [See story, Prosecutors: Don't blame us if govt doesn't get full P303M from Garcia] Balmeo said the apartment unit in New York Garcia allegedly owned was just rented, while “there was no evidence at all" indicating that another house in Ohio belonged to his family. Lifestyle check Former Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo, who spearheaded the filing of the plunder charges against Garcia in 2005, however said that the government should not be blamed for the former military official’s supposedly unvalidated properties. Marcelo said during the hearing that Garcia should have complained of the alleged mistakes in his properties after the charges were filed against him six years ago. "If there were mistakes, he should have answered that during the preliminary investigation that we conducted after the case was filed," he said. Marcelo likewise said the Office of the Ombudsman under his watch conducted a lifestyle check on Garcia to verify the ex-military comptroller’s properties. "We did it. We conducted a property check and we found out that the some properties in the United States were under the name of Garcia’s wife and sons," he said. Garcia blames media For his part, Garcia blamed the media for supposedly inaccurate reports on him and his family. "Ang hinanakit ko sa media, ang dami niyong pinagsasabi, but no one even attended the trial five years ago," he told members of the media after the House probe. The former Armed Forces official also said that reporters should have sufficient knowledge of the case first before asking him questions. "Sana lang kapag magtatanong kayo [reporters] may hawak din kayong dokumento. Maaari kasing gamitin sa korte ‘yan," he said. Garcia added that he just entered the plea bargaining agreement with the Office of the Ombudsman last year for the sake of his family. "Nag-initiate lang ako para mailabas ang pamilya ko from detention. Hanggang ngayon na nandoon pa rin sila," he said. According to the former military comptroller, his wife, Clarita, is currently detained in Michigan, while his two sons — who pleaded guilty to cash smuggling last year after they were caught carrying $100,000 at the San Francisco International Airport in 2003 — are in two separate detention centers in New York and San Francisco. Plea bargain deal Last year, special prosecutors form the Office of the Ombudsman entered into a plea bargain agreement with Garcia, who pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of direct bribery and money laundering instead of the crime of plunder. After admitting to these offenses, the ex-military comptroller was allowed to post bail that led to his temporary freedom from jail in December last year. The former military comptroller was also allowed to return only P135 million out of the P303 million he allegedly stole from government coffers. The Office of the Solicitor-General (OSG) has asked the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court last week to allow it to intervene in the controversial deal and to nullify Garcia’s arraignment for direct bribery. — LBG/KBK/RSJ, GMANews.TV