Mayuga report: P197-M AFP funds for '04 polls missing

The P197-million fund allocated to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) during the 2004 polls was not fully liquidated, with its bulk supposedly going to unaudited intelligence funds, military officials revealed in the so-called “Mayuga report." Lt. Col. Gilbert Gapay, officer-in-charge of the funds, said in the report that the AFP set aside a total of P101 million from its operational funds for an “intelligence project" during the 2004 elections. He added that the rest of the amount went to “operational support, reservists and even maintenance of mission and essential assets." Lt. Col. Robert Arevalo, who coordinated with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on the release of military funds for the 2004 polls, meanwhile, admitted in the report that he “does not know where the funds go." He further said that the Comelec should “be the one answerable where the funds for the 2004 elections was used" and not the AFP. He, however, added that the release of AFP election funds were “transparent enough" and were based on an expenditure program approved by top military officials. President Benigno Aquino III ordered last week the release of the Mayuga report, which details the military’s investigation on claims that some of its ranking officers participated in the alleged rigging of the 2004 elections to favor then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The report was prepared by former Navy Flag Officer-in-Command Vice Admiral Mateo Mayuga, who headed the panel that looked into the allegations of the military’s involvement in electoral fraud. Unliquidated In the same report, Lt. Col. Victoriano Pimentel, commander of a Marine Brigade deployed in Sulu during the 2004 polls, said that he received P70,000 after the elections for “additional support" but did not submit a record on how the money was spent. Pimentel said the amount came from Major General Gabriel Habacon, chief of the task force in charge of Western Mindanao during the 2004 elections who was mentioned in the controversial “Hello Garci" tapes. Lt. Col. Elmer Estopin, another battalion commander assigned in Sulu, also claimed to have received around P75,000 from Habacon, “but was not required to liquidate" the amount. Estopin said he distributed the amount to his company without proper accounting. The funds were handed out to troops without requirement for liquidation despite a statement in the Mayuga report by then Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Lt. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr., that the amounts should have been “automatically" accounted for. “It is automatic that when you received funds, you have to liquidate that," he was quoted in the report as saying. Esperon, who was also one of the generals mentioned in the "Hello Garci" tapes, was appointed as AFP chief by Arroyo in 2006. Special audit Bayan-Muna party-list Rep. Teodoro Casiño, for his part, called for a special audit of the unliquidated military funds for the 2004 polls, saying that the money could have been used for electoral fraud. “Is this the common practice of the AFP? No wonder that so many funds have been stolen or misused in the AFP. We suspect that the intelligence and operational funds [were] used for fraud," he said in a statement Sunday. He added that the Commission on Audit (COA) should immediately ask military officials who disbursed the money to submit detailed liquidations of how the funds were spent. “We certainly hope that they can account for the money because based on different testimonies in the annexes in the Mayuga report, there was no liquidation. That by itself should have warranted a case against the officers involved," he said. He also criticized the Mayuga panel for “ignoring" the supposed lack of transparency in the handling of military funds during the 2004 elections. - KBK, GMA News