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Heidi Mendoza to continue fight despite threats


Heidi Mendoza, the former state auditor who blew the whistle on the alleged corruption in the military, is unfazed with the death threats and will continue to testify in any investigation on the plea bargaining deal between the Office of the Ombudsman and former military comptroller Carlos Garcia. “I will go through with this until the end. As [the] people say, there’s no turning back," Mendoza told reporters in Filipino after Monday’s Senate inquiry on the plea bargaining agreement. Mendoza’s camp over the weekend said she has been receiving death threats after she testified in a congressional hearing last week. Mendoza, however, was unmoved. “I don’t deserve these threats. I believe that everything that happens is God’s will," she said. She said she will continue testifying only if it is about Garcia and his controversial plea bargaining agreement, which allowed him to plead guilty to lesser offenses of direct bribery and money laundering and eventually post bail. Garcia is facing a P303-million plunder suit, a non-bailable offense, at the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court. Mendoza, as a former auditor of the Commission on Audit, had followed the money trail of Garcia’s transactions. She left her post at the Asian Development Bank in preparation for her testimony against the former military officer. President Benigno Aquino III had earlier said he was inclined to give a government post to Mendoza. Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano had suggested that Mendoza be appointed as the "anti-corruption czar" of the country. Mendoza, for her part, said she hasn’t received any formal job offer yet from the President or any government office. She said she is open to the possibility of working for the government again but that she would still have to consult her family about it. - Kimberly Jane Tan/KBK/RSJ, GMA News

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