THE GARCIA PLEA BARGAIN ISSUE
THE SITUATION
In 2004, Major General Carlos Garcia, PMA Class 1971, was charged with plunder for manipulating the funds of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) while he was Deputy Chief of Staff for Comptrollership. According to the Official Gazette: “There is strong evidence Maj. Gen. Garcia, has abused his position as gatekeeper of the AFP’s funds and has stolen from UN Peacekeeping Reimbursements, US-PH Balikatan Expenses, AFP Procurements, and Interagency Transfers. The evidence points out that he siphoned off funds from bank accounts he set up as Comptroller, under the name of the AFP, into his own personal accounts. He would also reimburse items twice—once each from the UN and the United States—and keep half for himself. The evidence points out that deposits in his private peso accounts ballooned from P5.26 million in 1999 to P92.81 million in 2004, and his private dollar accounts from around $19,500 in 1999 to almost $1.9 million in 2004. All this despite that a Major General of the Armed Forces receives a salary of P37,000 plus allowances.”
However, “Garcia engaged in a plea bargain with the Office of the Ombudsman through the Office of the Special Prosecutor, by changing his plea of “not guilty” of plunder and plead “guilty” to indirect bribery and violation of the Anti-Money Laundering Act—which led to a lesser sentence covered by time he has already served. Though accused of plundering at least Php303 million, the agreement has settled for Php135.43 million. Violating the rules of court, a petition for bail was filed, put on the agenda, and granted on the same day—December 16, 2010, when Garcia walked out of prison. The plea bargain was made presumably due to lack of evidence, which is inconsistent with the belief of former Ombudsman Marcelo.” In effect, the plea bargain arrangement became a sort of Pandora’s Box that exposed weaknesses not only in the AFP, but also in the judiciary, particularly in the Ombudsman, and in some banking systems. The Ombudsman was shown to have failed to take cognizance of the plunder of Lieutenant General Ligot, Class 1970, whose unexplained wealth is almost twice that of Garcia. It had acted on Garcia only because the United States authorities brought out his case of unexplained wealth when they apprehended his sons for trying to bring a large amount of undeclared dollars into the United States.
The plea bargain case became a national issue, arousing public outrage, and was subject of congressional inquiries. Eventually, whistle-blowers, namely, former government auditor Ms Heidi Mendoza and former budget officer Lt Col George Rabusa, came out with incriminating details of corruption in the AFP. Exposed as well are legal and procedural manipulation of evidences to somehow set Garcia guilty of a lesser crime of “indirect bribery and money laundering”, which turned out to be inapplicable to his case. Also, the Ombudsman is demonstrated to be more inclined to defend and not prosecute Garcia for plunder, claiming that the plea bargain is a "win-win solution" for the government and Garcia (why should a criminal win?)
This article focuses on the effects of the Garcia plea bargain arrangement on the AFP. Garcia’s case began to assume serious proportions that placed all alumni of the PMA under serious misgivingS as to their character training and development. When former Chief of Staff General Angelo Reyes, Class 1966, was subjected to incisive questioning by senators during a public hearing, he felt that his reputation was in jeopardy. In order to save his tarnished honor, General Reyes committed suicide by shooting himself in the heart. Inspite of his suicide, the AFP still gave him funeral honors. Other alumni implicated in the case of plunder are other former AFP Chiefs of Staff.
In the light of these unfortunate developments, several groups of PMA alumni started soul-searching activities. One group meeting, initiated by Lieutenant General Salvador Mison, Class 1955, started to work out a viable process by which to restore the confidence of the Filipino people in the trustworthiness of the graduates of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA). The major thrust of the effort is to strengthen the Code of Honor and truly implement the motto of the PMA, that is: Courage, Integrity, Loyalty. The emphasis this time is on Integrity, merely having Courage and Loyalty as supportive of the principle. The concepts of Courage and Loyalty had turned out to be misapplied and incongruent with Integrity. Courage may be applied as daring to commit wrong, and Loyalty is exercised to support even an amoral personality rather than the military organization. A definition states that “Integrity is a concept of consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations, and outcomes. In ethics, integrity is regarded as the honesty and truthfulness of one's actions. Law professor Stephen L. Carter writes that integrity requires three steps: "discerning what is right and what is wrong; acting on what you have discerned, even at personal cost; and saying openly that you are acting on your understanding of right from wrong." He regards integrity as being distinct from honesty.”
Suggested action. Rather than have a formal setup to address itself towards restituting the damaged reputation of PMAers and the AFP, a group without any hierarchical structure is convened to work out the needed reforms, giving it flexibility. In order to carry out its mission with authority, the group may be part of the Philippine Military Academy Alumni Association (PMAAAI).
The envisioned group may be composed of retired PMA alumni who are concerned with the moral uprightness of the officer corps. As leaders of the military organization imbued with discipline and integrity they are also appropriate models of society. A drawback of the group is its lack of disciplinary authority to impose penal sanctions. It must act on the conscience of individual officers who may be straying from norms of discipline. Thus it may be called “conscience sentinel or council” or “honor guardian” for PMA alumni.
THE HONOR GUARDIAN or CONSCIENCE COUNCIL
VISION: An officer corps deeply imbued with integrity. (Integrity is defined as “the quality of being of sound moral principle; uprightness, honesty, and sincerity.”)
MISSION
Constantly monitor the official performance of duty of individual officers.
Work on the conscience of potential wrongdoers and crush incorrect behavior while still small.
Imbue conscientious exercise of official duties that will redound to the moral reformation, not only of the military organization, but also of society in general.
Influence the necessary changes in the process and development of appropriate character among cadets, resulting in an officer corps imbued with honor.
In monitoring individual officers, all officers regardless of rank shall be encouraged to report any sign of wrongdoing of other officers that will detract from the reputation of the AFP. The internet may serve as conduit of their reports of wrongdoing even how slight it may be in order to prevent the wrong behavior from getting worse. Such reports shall be sent to and evaluated by the Council. As evaluated, the Council may then summon the wrongdoer and warn him about consequences if his wrong behavior is not rectified. Any repeat of wrong done, the Council shall recommend expulsion from PMAAA which shall be publicly announced.
The Council may conduct periodic review of the Fourthclass System which is the basic process in developing official character in the officer corps. The Honor Code shall not be applicable only to cadets, but to all officers. Thus, a cadet/officer shall not cheat, lie or take advantage of others. He shall be duty bound to report any violation. Hazing must be reported not only by witnesses but by the victim himself; failure to do so will also convict him (the victim) of the crime. There shall be no disgrace attached to such exposes. The stigma of “squealing” only applies to the code of honor among thieves.
Henceforth, we ought to put value to the exposition of truth. We ought to even change the term “whistle blower” to “truthsayer” if we are to value Integrity as THE quality of an officer alumnus of the Philippine Military Academy.
In 2004, Major General Carlos Garcia, PMA Class 1971, was charged with plunder for manipulating the funds of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) while he was Deputy Chief of Staff for Comptrollership. According to the Official Gazette: “There is strong evidence Maj. Gen. Garcia, has abused his position as gatekeeper of the AFP’s funds and has stolen from UN Peacekeeping Reimbursements, US-PH Balikatan Expenses, AFP Procurements, and Interagency Transfers. The evidence points out that he siphoned off funds from bank accounts he set up as Comptroller, under the name of the AFP, into his own personal accounts. He would also reimburse items twice—once each from the UN and the United States—and keep half for himself. The evidence points out that deposits in his private peso accounts ballooned from P5.26 million in 1999 to P92.81 million in 2004, and his private dollar accounts from around $19,500 in 1999 to almost $1.9 million in 2004. All this despite that a Major General of the Armed Forces receives a salary of P37,000 plus allowances.”
However, “Garcia engaged in a plea bargain with the Office of the Ombudsman through the Office of the Special Prosecutor, by changing his plea of “not guilty” of plunder and plead “guilty” to indirect bribery and violation of the Anti-Money Laundering Act—which led to a lesser sentence covered by time he has already served. Though accused of plundering at least Php303 million, the agreement has settled for Php135.43 million. Violating the rules of court, a petition for bail was filed, put on the agenda, and granted on the same day—December 16, 2010, when Garcia walked out of prison. The plea bargain was made presumably due to lack of evidence, which is inconsistent with the belief of former Ombudsman Marcelo.” In effect, the plea bargain arrangement became a sort of Pandora’s Box that exposed weaknesses not only in the AFP, but also in the judiciary, particularly in the Ombudsman, and in some banking systems. The Ombudsman was shown to have failed to take cognizance of the plunder of Lieutenant General Ligot, Class 1970, whose unexplained wealth is almost twice that of Garcia. It had acted on Garcia only because the United States authorities brought out his case of unexplained wealth when they apprehended his sons for trying to bring a large amount of undeclared dollars into the United States.
The plea bargain case became a national issue, arousing public outrage, and was subject of congressional inquiries. Eventually, whistle-blowers, namely, former government auditor Ms Heidi Mendoza and former budget officer Lt Col George Rabusa, came out with incriminating details of corruption in the AFP. Exposed as well are legal and procedural manipulation of evidences to somehow set Garcia guilty of a lesser crime of “indirect bribery and money laundering”, which turned out to be inapplicable to his case. Also, the Ombudsman is demonstrated to be more inclined to defend and not prosecute Garcia for plunder, claiming that the plea bargain is a "win-win solution" for the government and Garcia (why should a criminal win?)
This article focuses on the effects of the Garcia plea bargain arrangement on the AFP. Garcia’s case began to assume serious proportions that placed all alumni of the PMA under serious misgivingS as to their character training and development. When former Chief of Staff General Angelo Reyes, Class 1966, was subjected to incisive questioning by senators during a public hearing, he felt that his reputation was in jeopardy. In order to save his tarnished honor, General Reyes committed suicide by shooting himself in the heart. Inspite of his suicide, the AFP still gave him funeral honors. Other alumni implicated in the case of plunder are other former AFP Chiefs of Staff.
In the light of these unfortunate developments, several groups of PMA alumni started soul-searching activities. One group meeting, initiated by Lieutenant General Salvador Mison, Class 1955, started to work out a viable process by which to restore the confidence of the Filipino people in the trustworthiness of the graduates of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA). The major thrust of the effort is to strengthen the Code of Honor and truly implement the motto of the PMA, that is: Courage, Integrity, Loyalty. The emphasis this time is on Integrity, merely having Courage and Loyalty as supportive of the principle. The concepts of Courage and Loyalty had turned out to be misapplied and incongruent with Integrity. Courage may be applied as daring to commit wrong, and Loyalty is exercised to support even an amoral personality rather than the military organization. A definition states that “Integrity is a concept of consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations, and outcomes. In ethics, integrity is regarded as the honesty and truthfulness of one's actions. Law professor Stephen L. Carter writes that integrity requires three steps: "discerning what is right and what is wrong; acting on what you have discerned, even at personal cost; and saying openly that you are acting on your understanding of right from wrong." He regards integrity as being distinct from honesty.”
Suggested action. Rather than have a formal setup to address itself towards restituting the damaged reputation of PMAers and the AFP, a group without any hierarchical structure is convened to work out the needed reforms, giving it flexibility. In order to carry out its mission with authority, the group may be part of the Philippine Military Academy Alumni Association (PMAAAI).
The envisioned group may be composed of retired PMA alumni who are concerned with the moral uprightness of the officer corps. As leaders of the military organization imbued with discipline and integrity they are also appropriate models of society. A drawback of the group is its lack of disciplinary authority to impose penal sanctions. It must act on the conscience of individual officers who may be straying from norms of discipline. Thus it may be called “conscience sentinel or council” or “honor guardian” for PMA alumni.
THE HONOR GUARDIAN or CONSCIENCE COUNCIL
VISION: An officer corps deeply imbued with integrity. (Integrity is defined as “the quality of being of sound moral principle; uprightness, honesty, and sincerity.”)
MISSION
Constantly monitor the official performance of duty of individual officers.
Work on the conscience of potential wrongdoers and crush incorrect behavior while still small.
Imbue conscientious exercise of official duties that will redound to the moral reformation, not only of the military organization, but also of society in general.
Influence the necessary changes in the process and development of appropriate character among cadets, resulting in an officer corps imbued with honor.
In monitoring individual officers, all officers regardless of rank shall be encouraged to report any sign of wrongdoing of other officers that will detract from the reputation of the AFP. The internet may serve as conduit of their reports of wrongdoing even how slight it may be in order to prevent the wrong behavior from getting worse. Such reports shall be sent to and evaluated by the Council. As evaluated, the Council may then summon the wrongdoer and warn him about consequences if his wrong behavior is not rectified. Any repeat of wrong done, the Council shall recommend expulsion from PMAAA which shall be publicly announced.
The Council may conduct periodic review of the Fourthclass System which is the basic process in developing official character in the officer corps. The Honor Code shall not be applicable only to cadets, but to all officers. Thus, a cadet/officer shall not cheat, lie or take advantage of others. He shall be duty bound to report any violation. Hazing must be reported not only by witnesses but by the victim himself; failure to do so will also convict him (the victim) of the crime. There shall be no disgrace attached to such exposes. The stigma of “squealing” only applies to the code of honor among thieves.
Henceforth, we ought to put value to the exposition of truth. We ought to even change the term “whistle blower” to “truthsayer” if we are to value Integrity as THE quality of an officer alumnus of the Philippine Military Academy.
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