Ombudsman denies receiving money in approving Garcia's plea bargain deal

Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez on Tuesday denied receiving money in exchange for approving the plea bargain agreement with a former military comptroller. Gutierrez, during the hearing of the committee on justice of the House of Representatives, said that the evidence against former Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) comptroller Carlos Garcia was weak.

"Walang ayusan dito, walang perahan dito (There is no fixing here, there is no money involved)," she said.

"Kung may kumita rito, tamaan na ng kidlat at mamatay na ngayon din. Ganito kalinis ito at wala kaming tinatago (If there is anyone who benefited from this [plea bargain agreement], may they be hit by lightning now. That’s how clean this deal has been. We have nothing to hide)," she added.

Gutierrez said the plea bargain agreement with the former military comptroller is "legal and clean" and that "it was best for the country."

"We want to get the most of what we can get from the accused then, (and) now we are being tried by publicity because of misrepresentation and false accusations," she said.

The Ombudsman said that not even the findings of former Commission on Audit (CoA) auditor Heidi Mendoza, who did some audit work on military funds, could pin down the ex-AFP comptroller.

"I was told that the report she (Mendoza) made, she made alone, they pointed to the AFP transactions without linking Garcia," Gutierrez told the panel.

"It was a recommendation from the prosecutors that we don’t have enough evidence, there is weak evidence to convict Garcia that’s why we bargained... If he will just be acquitted, we might as well get all the properties we can get from him so we end up the winner," she said.

On the other hand, Mendoza told the House justice committee that she found a voucher for a P200-million check from the Land Bank of the Philippines signed by the former military comptroller, but the P50 million supposed "pabaon" (send-off) money for retiring military chief of staff mentioned earlier by former AFP budget officer George Rabusa, could not be found.

She said the P200 million was encashed in November 2002 at the UCPB Alfaro branch in Makati City. Although another account was opened, it contained only P100 million and P50 million deposits, she added.

Rabusa, at the hearing of the Senate blue ribbon committee last week, said that former AFP chief of staff Angelo Reyes received P50 million as send-off money when he retired from the service.

He said that this was a tradition within the military. Reyes had denied the accusation.

Meanwhile, it was reported that the Department of Justice (DOJ) already placed Mendoza under the provisional coverage of the Witness Protection Program (WPP). The former COA auditor earlier appealed to lawmakers to help her ensure her security, saying her coming out has risked the life of her family. She said she resigned from her job at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) effective January this year and is now jobless.

Mendoza said she agreed to talk about what she knew because "in my heart, there’s no place for good governance and anti-corruption if I don’t tell my people what I have discovered in the AFP."