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Witness: Ex-AFP chief Angelo Reyes got P50-M 'pabaon'


(Updated 5:49 p.m.) 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 gave 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. 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 the "White House." He said since it was "very bulky" to carry the P50 million, they had it converted to dollars.
AFP spokesman: ‘Pabaon’ practice discontinued in 2004
The military on Thursday admitted the practice of giving millions of pesos of “pabaon" (send-off money) to retiring chiefs of staff, but said the illegal practice is no longer being done. “It doesn’t happen anymore because of the innovations that were done, that were undertaken after the General Garcia case came out in the open," said Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesman Brig. Gen. Jose Mabanta. Garcia, a former AFP comptroller facing a plunder case before an anti-graft court, is accused of amassing over P300 million in ill-gotten wealth while he was in active service. Mabanta said the practice stopped with the abolition of the office of the AFP deputy chief of staff for comptrollership (J6) in 2004 following the Garcia scandal. J6 was replaced by the office of the AFP Resource Management Office, office of the AFP Management and Fiscals Office, and the office of the AFP Internal Auditor. “A lot of things have happened to the comptroller. From a very big office, it was divided into smaller offices. One of the intentions of this is to show there is check and balance, not one office will decide on the financial issues," said Mabanta. Mabanta made the statement after former Lt. Col. George Rabusa, a former military budget officer, accused former AFP chief Angelo Reyes in a Senate hearing of receiving P50 million of send-off money upon his retirement from the military. (Read more)
Military sources described the send-off money as "the uncalled for practice being undertaken by a particular chief of staff and the comptroller division." "Wala sa record pero diskarte lahat ng comptroller yan. Walang ibang nakaka-alam [niyan] kundi and CS [chief of staff] at comptroller lang," a ranking officer told GMANews.TV. (The amount is not entered in records but the comptroller knows it. Only the chief of staff and the comptroller know it.) The same sources, however, said that the "practice" does not automatically apply to all chiefs of staff. Converted cash funds Rabusa, who hinted that Reyes was not the only chief of staff who benefited from the "pabaon" practice, said the money came from the AFP's Provision for Command Directed Activities (PCDA), which is pooled from the different units within the military organization. "When he (chief of staff) retires during his tenure . . . the balance in the PCDA are all converted into cash and given to the retiring chief of staff," he said. Rabusa, who was called to the Senate inquiry by Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada, said chiefs of staff also get around P10 million monthly while in service, half of which supposedly goes to their pockets. Calculating the amounts, Estrada said Reyes probably received around P100 million during his 20-month tenure as AFP chief of staff. Rabusa said others on the PCDA's payroll were the office of the vice chief of staff, which allegedly received P1.5 million; deputy chief of staff, P1.5 million; secretary of joint staff, P1 million); personnel of the House legislative office, retired generals, and members of the Defense Press Corps, among others. Rabusa said former AFP chiefs of staff Gen. Diomedio Villanueva and Gen. Roy Cimatu, the current ambassador to the Middle East, also received P10 million each as "start-up" funds when they assumed office. Denial Ligot, for his part, repeatedly said during the inquiry that he could not remember being with Rabusa when they allegedly gave the money to Reyes. "I'm trying to recall, hindi ko po talaga maalala ang specifics (but I really can't remember the specifics)," he said, even when Estrada threatened to detain him at the Senate until he remembers giving the money to Reyes. Reyes, on the other hand, denied Rabusa's accusation and said he never asked anything from him. "Hindi ko po natatandaan na tumatanggap ako ng ganyan. Hindi ako santo (pero) hindi po ako tumatanggap ng iligal (I don't remember receiving anything like that. I am not a saint but I don't accept anything that is illegal)," he said during the hearing. Reyes, however, admitted that his office received a certain amount of funding, but quickly added that it didn't reach P5 million. He likewise lamented the "wrong impression" that the allegation was causing his name. "I have my name to protect. I've served this government for a long time," he said. Trillanes vs Reyes Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, a former Navy officer, said Reyes has no one to blame regarding his tarnished reputation but himself. "If you're so concerned with your name sana nag-ayos kayo (you should have been good) while you were in office," he told him during the hearing. "I was incarcerated for more than seven years. During those times all of you (said my) allegations are baseless. I believe this is the time of reckoning, you better find good lawyers," added Trillanes, who led a military uprising in 2003 and accused the AFP and Defense leadership of corruption. Special Prosecutor Wendell Barreras-Sulit of the Office of the Ombudsman, who was present in the hearing, said they would conduct an investigation into Rabusa 's allegations. "Mag-umpisa kami ng bagong imbestigasyon at sumasang-ayon ang aking mga kasamahan (My colleagues and I agree that we need to conduct a new investigation)," she said during the inquiry. Rabusa as state witness? Rabusa's lawyer Noel Malaya said his client wishes to become a state witness. "Considering he is not the most guilty of them... we want to tell the truth," he said. Estrada has asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to place Rabusa under the witness protection program. Senator Franklin Drilon said Rabusa can be placed under Senate custody until he is not yet under the DOJ's protection. Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said he will take responsibility over Rabusa "because he is a witness who was personally appeared before the chamber." Rabusa first testified in a Senate investigation in 2004 when the chamber held an inquiry into the Garcia corruption case. Rabusa was earlier charged with three counts of perjury and unlawfully acquiring property and vehicles amounting to more than P43 million despite only having an annual salary of P275,000. According to the Office of the Ombudsman, his net worth increased from P618,000 in 1990 to P7.18 million in 2003. His wife and father-in-law were likewise charged with conspiring with him. A Newsbreak article said after Garcia's arrest in 2004, the military also put Rabusa under house arrest. The Ombudsman included him in the charge sheet but only Garcia was implicated in the plunder case. The case against the Rabusa in the military never prospered. He opted for early retirement in 2004 to run for mayor. Estrada, however, noted that they did not intend to "pin down" anyone during the hearing. "We are just doing this to purge corruption from the military," he said in Filipino. Reyes, a former military chief, headed the Defense Department from 2001 to middle of 2003. Garcia was military comptroller from March 2001 to September 2003. Rabusa served as budget officer during the time of Garcia as J6 (deputy chief of staff for comptrollership, now defunct) and Ligot, Garcia's predecessor. - KBK, GMANews.TV
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