Blue ribbon panel stands by findings on Garcia plea deal

The Senate blue ribbon committee on Wednesday stood by its findings that a betrayal of public trust was committed when the Office of the Ombudsman entered into a plea bargaining agreement with accused plunderer Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia, a former military comptroller. "The recent developments in the courts, including the Sandiganbayan's decision to uphold the propriety of the plea bargaining agreement, does not change the blue ribbon's findings of the case," panel chairman Sen. Teofisto Guingona III said during the day's plenary session. Guingona, in reporting out committee report no. 27 to the plenary, said that the plea bargaining agreement between Garcia and the state prosecutors is void. "The PBA has no basis. There is lack of full restitution. There is lack of consent of the offended part, as required by the rules of court," he said. Guingona said that among the recommendations his committee came up with while investigating the issue is the urgent passage of the Freedom of Information Act. "The impenetrable veil of secrecy that covered the Garcia plea bargaining deal cannot be standard by which government decisions must be made," he said. He likewise said that a law governing plea bargaining, a law amending the Anti-Money Laundering Act, a law amending the Ombudsman Act of 1989, and a law giving the Department of Justice concurrent jurisdiction over investigations regarding employees of the Ombudsman should be passed. "This is the time when the Senate shall take it upon themselves to become the Filipino people's protectors in demanding accountability from the people who have abused, wasted, and destroyed the trust that were reposed on them," said Guingona. Last March, the committee had released a partial report recommending the impeachment of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez and the dismissal and filing of charges against the state prosecutors who entered into a plea bargaining agreement with Garcia. Gutierrez resigned before she could face an impeachment trial at the Senate, but insisted that the deal was valid as the government did not have enough evidence to convict Garcia. - Kimberly Jane Tan/KBK, GMA News