AFP welcomes probes on alleged corruption

Stressing that the practice of giving hefty cash gifts to retiring chiefs of staff is no longer observed, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Sunday vowed full cooperation in any investigation on the alleged corruption in the military. “The chief of staff, Gen. Ricardo David, ordered his personal staff to be prepared … if ever we are called by the [Department of Justice] or special investigation committee of the [Department of National Defense], Congress or Senate," said AFP spokesman Brig. Gen. Jose Mabanta. The cash gifts — or “pabaon" — were bared last Thursday by former Lt. Col. George Rabusa, a former military budget officer who faced a Senate investigation on the controversial plea bargain agreement between alleged plunderer former Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia and the Office of the Ombudsman. Rabusa said retired AFP chief Gen. Angelo Reyes — a key personality in the downfall of the Estrada presidency in 2001 — was among those who benefited from the “pabaon" system. Reyes denied the allegation, but it prompted Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin to form a special investigation committee that will look into the controversy and at the same time determine the possible administrative and criminal liabilities of those involved. Information drive Mabanta said the military will embark on an information drive to inform its personnel that the “pabaon" system is no longer observed. He said reform measures have been adopted since the Garcia controversy in late 2003, including the abolition of the office of the AFP deputy chief of staff for comptrollership, whose functions and responsibilities are now performed by three units. “We’d like to inform everyone that this has been past malpractices that had been time and again corrected…When the chief of staff assumed last July, his instruction [was] the judicial use of funds [and] stomp out malpractices. We’ve been implementing this," he said. “In fact, that pabaon is already gone. That’s a thing of the past. We’ve come up with innovations, changes because of the Garcia anomaly," he added. Perceived corruption in the military had drove more than 300 soldiers, including junior officers, to seize a posh hotel in Makati City in July 2003 and demand for the resignation of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and some of her security officials, including Reyes, then secretary of the Department of National Defense. - KBK, GMANews.TV