Ex-AFP chief says evidence in Rabusa plunder suit 'fabricated'

(Updated 2:13 p.m.) A former Armed Forces chief accused of benefitting from the miltiary's so-called conversion scheme said Thursday the documents used by ex-military budget officer George Rabusa in his plunder complaint were fabricated. Accompanied by his lawyer Sixto Antonio, retired AFP chief Roy Cimatu went to the Department of Justice to dispute the accusations of plunder leveled by Rabusa. Cimatu, a product of the Philippine Military Academy class of 1970 and former special envoy to the Middle East, is one of three former military chiefs impleaded as respondents in Rabusa's complaint. The others are Efren Abu and Diomedio Villanueva. The two have already submitted their countr-affidavits during a DOJ panel hearing last July 28. On Thursday, Cimatu personally subscribed and swore to the authenticity of his 40-page counter-affidavit, which was submitted to Senior State Prosecutor Susan Dacanay, one of the three members of the DOJ panel handling the preliminary investigation into the complaint. The panel is led by Prosecutor General (formerly Chief State Prosecutor) Claro Arellano, the government's highest ranking prosecutor. "We're trying to show in the defense of General Cimatu that the entire scheme that was stated is false. They are all concocted lies, and we are trying to prove that some of those documents were fabricated," Antonio told DOJ reporters. The lawyer explained that some documents were unsigned, indicating that these were probably manufactured. "Usually the documents are signed, certified. there are officers that sign those documents. And in some official documents they reflect the name of the department where it came from. But it appears that those documents [submitted by Rabusa] don't reflect the name of the department where those documents came from," Antonio added. He then said that the plunder complaint should be junked because "there is no basis to establish a complaint or even an indictment of General Cimatu." Special envoy Cimatu's appointment as special to the envoy to the Middle East lapsed last June 30. When the AFP fund mess controversy broke out earlier this year, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) cancelled Cimatu's mission to Egypt. Antonio said the retired general has been in distress because he remains a respondent in the plunder suit. "You have to understand that the general feels distressed about this situation. You would try to understand that a person who has tried to render military service for 37 years and he has kept his reputation intact. And a lot of people in the military know him. They know that he is a very responsible person and a very upright person, and to accuse him of these fabricated lies... Definitely, it hits him eh," said the lawyer. AFP fund mess Retired and active members of the military's top brass were accused by Rabusa of taking part in the alleged conversion of more than P1 billion in military funds for personal use. Rabusa said the respondents had conspired with each other in pocketing millions of pesos from the military's coffers. In particular, Rabusa accused the former AFP chiefs of receiving "pabaon" (send-off money) before retiring from military service. The incoming ones were likewise accused of receiving "pasalubong" (welcome gift) to kick of their new terms. When he filed his supplemental complaint affidavit last June, Rabusa submitted a truckload of documentary evidence to fortify his plunder accusations. Aside from the three former AFP heads, the other respondents in the plunder suit are former military comptrollers Jacinto Ligot and Carlos F. Garcia, Col. Roy Devesa, Col. Gilbert Gapay, Col. Robert Arevalo, retired Maj. Gen. Ernesto Boac, Maj. Gen. Hilario Atendido, retired Maj. Gen. Epineto Logico, Brig. Gen. Benito de Leon, Col. Cirilo Donato, Maj. Emerson Angulo, retired Maj. Ernesto Paranis, Capt. Kenneth Paglinawan, and and recently retired Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) head Lt. Gen. Gaudencio Pangilinan, who is now Bureau of Corrections director. State auditors Divina Cabrera, Arturo Besana Generoso del Castillo, Crisanto Gabriel, and Manuel Warren are also among the respondents. — RSJ, GMA News