CRIME DOES PAY but not a convicted army general who was released by a court embarking on a compromise that he’ll plead guilty for a lesser crime and pay a hefty fine corresponding to the admitted crime.
Taking the case of a convicted Army General Carlos Garcia, he managed to walk out of jail via the so-called “plea bargaining.”
In a 15-page resolution issued by the Sandiganbayan Second Special Division, the court made an indirect admission on what appears to be “putting one over the court.”
According to the Sandiganbayan, Garcia has yet to pay the P408-million fine set by the court in connection with his conviction in 2022 for direct bribery and money laundering in connection with the illegal wealth he amassed from 1993 until 2004 – for which the anti-graft court issued “writs of execution.”
A writ of execution is a judicial remedy to compel the implementation of an earlier court resolution. In Garcia’s case, the court hoped that writ of execution would compel the convicted general to pay up.
PLEA BARGAIN PACT
Plea bargaining is a common practice in the criminal justice system where the prosecution and the defense negotiate an agreement to resolve a criminal case without a trial — or to cut short jail time.
In the case of Garcia, he agreed to plead guilty to a lesser crime to cut his jail time, even as the agreement somehow “decongested” the court of cases that has been under litigation beyond the 180-day deadline as provided under a Supreme Court decision.
Garcia’s camp however insisted that the convicted general is already a pauper after paying P135.4 million – an amount that is way below the P1.5 billion that was allegedly plundered during his senior stint in the Armed Forces of the Philippines.”
Garcia, who was then the AFP Deputy Chief of Staff for Comptrollership, is known for the AFP Corruption Scandal embarking on the so-called “pabaon scandal,” a scheme bestowing “hefty goodwill money” to retiring AFP senior officers.
SANDIGAN’S DISBELIEF
The court however doesn’t seem convinced that Garcia is already a pauper and no longer capable of paying up, notwithstanding the plea bargaining agreement that was signed by the prosecution and defense panel.
“As discussed above, the amount of P135,433,387.84 surrendered to the Republic in accordance with the Plea Bargaining Agreement was given by way of restitution for criminal acts and constitutes an admission of civil liability arising from the commission of a crime,” Sandiganbayan Special Second Division countered.
“As the accused pleaded guilty to the crime of direct bribery, the Court is duty-bound to render the requisite penalty as dictated by law,” it added.
The court also found no merit in Garcia’s claim of insolvency or inability to pay as the government supposedly already forfeited all his assets and properties.
WHAT WENT BEFORE
The cases stemmed from Garcia’s alleged receipt of kickbacks, commissions and “shopping money or gratitude money” in several government projects or transactions when he was the AFP deputy chief of staff for comptrollership with the rank of major general.
An investigation by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee also revealed Garcia was allowed to pocket some P165 million in “pabaon” or send-off money before his retirement in 2004, as per testimony of former budget officer George Rabusa.
The way the money was diverted was uncovered by Commission on Audit auditor Heidi Mendoza when she testified on a House of Representatives Committee on Justice
An estimated P1.5 billion in AFP funds were allegedly placed anomalously in an unaudited pool of discretionary resources. Under the system, Garcia was accused of amassing no less than P303 million – on top of the P164 million that he got when he reached the mandatory retirement age.
WHAT ABOUT OTHERS
The scandal resulted in the filing of plunder charges against six retired generals and five other officers including AFP chiefs Roy Cimatu and Diomedio Villanueva; retired military comptrollers Garcia and Jacinto Ligot; retired major general Hilario Atendido; former brigadier general Benito de Leon; retired lieutenant colonel Ernesto Paranis; active-duty officers Cirilo Tomas Donato and Roy Devesa; former civilian auditor of Divina Cabrera; and former accountant Generoso del Castillo.
Rabusa testified that all of the AFP chiefs of staff were recipients of send-off money. Allegations that they received send-off money were denied. The late Environment Sec. Angelo Reyes (himself a former AFP chief of staff) whose name forms part of the list of the supposed “recipients” opted to kill himself rather than testify in Congress.
Of the 11 senior AFP officials only Ligot and Garcia, who were the AFP’s comptrollers when the system was in place. Interestingly, both of them found their way out of jail – Ligot was acquitted, while Garcia was released via plea bargain.