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Arroyo link to Garcia case ‘not far-fetched’
By TJ Burgonio
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:04:00 02/11/2011
Filed Under: Military, Graft & Corruption
MANILA, Philippines—The late former Armed Forces Chief of Staff Angelo Reyes was not the “powerful person” behind plunder suspect Carlos Garcia but probably somebody much higher than he, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV said Thursday.
The senator declined to name this powerful person, but when pressed by reporters if the purported corruption in the military would reach the level of then President and now Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, he said: “It’s not far-fetched. We’ll go wherever this will lead us.”
Trillanes had earlier quoted Garcia as saying that he was fronting for a powerful person.
He said Garcia made the remark when they were both still in detention at the Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame, he for involvement in the 2003 Oakwood mutiny and the former military comptroller for plunder. Garcia has since been allowed to plead guilty to lesser offenses and granted bail under a controversial plea bargain.
When Reyes later publicly challenged Trillanes to identify the person, the senator named him.
But on Thursday, Trillanes curtly said “no” when asked if Reyes was the same powerful person mentioned to him by Garcia during their conversations at Camp Crame years ago.
Asked if the powerful person was a man, Trillanes said: “He wasn’t the same person.” But he refused to name the person even when pressed, saying: “I won’t go there yet.”
Arroyo’s spokesperson, Elena Bautista-Horn, did not reply to text messages or phone calls for comment.
Principal
Trillanes, however, clarified that he tagged Reyes as one of the principals of retired AFP comptrollers Lt. Gen. Jacinto Ligot and successor Garcia after ex-military budget officer George Rabusa exposed at a Senate inquiry the slush fund that allegedly benefited AFP chiefs of staff, including Reyes.
He said a review of the footage of the hearing would show Rabusa saying that money was being handed “through General Ligot, then eventually General Garcia, to the late General Reyes.”
“That time I was being dared by the late general [to name the powerful person], I did mention that he was one of the principals behind General Garcia and General Ligot,” Trillanes said, adding:
“Even if General Reyes [told] me that he did not gain from the transactions of General Garcia, he admitted that these passed through him. As a secretary of national defense, he was in a position to stop that.
“So I said, ‘Well, if you won’t spill the beans, then you will have to fall with these people.”
Trillanes also said that when Reyes was claiming he had nothing to do with Garcia, Rabusa had not yet come out to testify.
Chronology
It was in a TV interview on Jan. 12 that Trillanes said Garcia was “a front for somebody powerful” and was willing to talk about it in 2009 but became afraid to do so.
The senator said he had disclosed the identity of the person to some people in Malacañang.
On Jan. 14, Reyes wrote Trillanes a letter asking him to identify the powerful person “in the interest of truth, justice and fairness.”
Reyes’ letter read in part: “[K]nowing you to be a forthright and just person, I am confident that when you do name this powerful person, you would be able to substantiate the allegation.
“Mr. Senator, you owe it to the ordinary citizens of this Republic that you do this. Please let us not keep the people and the issue hanging.”
On Jan. 27, when the Senate blue ribbon committee opened its inquiry into Garcia’s plea bargain with the Office of the Ombudsman, Rabusa said Reyes, then due for retirement, had received P50 million as “send-off” money and a P5-million monthly take—charges that Reyes indirectly denied.
On Feb. 1, when Reyes’ letter was published in newspapers, Trillanes said: “I am naming him [as the powerful person].” He cited Rabusa’s testimony as evidence.
Trillanes said then that Reyes’ involvement in military corruption was not limited to Rabusa’s account. He said he was still gathering evidence in connection with the Lamitan siege of 2001, wherein government troops allegedly allowed Abu Sayyaf kidnappers to breach the military cordon and escape.
Arroyo’s phone call
Reyes took his own life while visiting his parents’ grave at Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina City on Feb. 8.
A day earlier, Reyes phoned his friend, retired Commodore Rex Robles, to report that Arroyo had phoned him to ask who delivered Reyes’ letter to Trillanes and why Robles knew about it, according to Robles himself.
But what did Reyes’ emissary tell Trillanes when he delivered the letter?
Trillanes said he could not remember the emissary’s exact words. (He also did not say when the letter was delivered, and did not name the emissary.)
“But generally he was saying that as far as General Garcia is concerned, there were transactions passing through him (Reyes) from upstairs but he (Garcia) was not getting anything from it. Rabusa and General Ligot are a different matter. Here, Rabusa revealed that General Reyes is involved,” the senator said.
Trillanes said he told the emissary that he was not referring to Reyes as the powerful person behind Garcia.
But all this changed after Rabusa came out, he said.
‘Only Malacañang’
Trillanes also said that with so much money involved, it was “impossible that this just happened at the level of General Reyes.”
“Only Malacañang makes such releases of that magnitude,” he said, but did not rule out the existence of a “syndicate” operating in the military comptroller’s office.
Trillanes acknowledged that Garcia held the answer to questions on the identity of the powerful person behind Reyes who orchestrated corruption in the military.
“General Garcia has the entire picture as far as that particular episode of corruption during that time [is concerned]. There were several corruption incidences during that administration, and at some point, one’s conscience will be pricked and they will spill the beans,” he said.
Asked if this would lead to Malacañang, he said: “We cannot preempt anything. We’ll have to produce the necessary evidence before we get there.”
‘Out of spite’
In a statement, Reyes’ lawyer Bonifacio Alentajan said Trillanes’ belated accusation that his client was the powerful person behind Garcia was “grossly irresponsible, defamatory and constituted a clear abuse of parliamentary power.”
Alentajan questioned the timing of Trillanes’ accusation which, he said, was made “out of spite.”
He said it was “an absolute falsehood because General Garcia never served as AFP comptroller when Secretary Reyes was AFP chief of staff.” With a report from Cynthia D. Balana
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By TJ Burgonio
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:04:00 02/11/2011
Filed Under: Military, Graft & Corruption
MANILA, Philippines—The late former Armed Forces Chief of Staff Angelo Reyes was not the “powerful person” behind plunder suspect Carlos Garcia but probably somebody much higher than he, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV said Thursday.
The senator declined to name this powerful person, but when pressed by reporters if the purported corruption in the military would reach the level of then President and now Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, he said: “It’s not far-fetched. We’ll go wherever this will lead us.”
Trillanes had earlier quoted Garcia as saying that he was fronting for a powerful person.
He said Garcia made the remark when they were both still in detention at the Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame, he for involvement in the 2003 Oakwood mutiny and the former military comptroller for plunder. Garcia has since been allowed to plead guilty to lesser offenses and granted bail under a controversial plea bargain.
When Reyes later publicly challenged Trillanes to identify the person, the senator named him.
But on Thursday, Trillanes curtly said “no” when asked if Reyes was the same powerful person mentioned to him by Garcia during their conversations at Camp Crame years ago.
Asked if the powerful person was a man, Trillanes said: “He wasn’t the same person.” But he refused to name the person even when pressed, saying: “I won’t go there yet.”
Arroyo’s spokesperson, Elena Bautista-Horn, did not reply to text messages or phone calls for comment.
Principal
Trillanes, however, clarified that he tagged Reyes as one of the principals of retired AFP comptrollers Lt. Gen. Jacinto Ligot and successor Garcia after ex-military budget officer George Rabusa exposed at a Senate inquiry the slush fund that allegedly benefited AFP chiefs of staff, including Reyes.
He said a review of the footage of the hearing would show Rabusa saying that money was being handed “through General Ligot, then eventually General Garcia, to the late General Reyes.”
“That time I was being dared by the late general [to name the powerful person], I did mention that he was one of the principals behind General Garcia and General Ligot,” Trillanes said, adding:
“Even if General Reyes [told] me that he did not gain from the transactions of General Garcia, he admitted that these passed through him. As a secretary of national defense, he was in a position to stop that.
“So I said, ‘Well, if you won’t spill the beans, then you will have to fall with these people.”
Trillanes also said that when Reyes was claiming he had nothing to do with Garcia, Rabusa had not yet come out to testify.
Chronology
It was in a TV interview on Jan. 12 that Trillanes said Garcia was “a front for somebody powerful” and was willing to talk about it in 2009 but became afraid to do so.
The senator said he had disclosed the identity of the person to some people in Malacañang.
On Jan. 14, Reyes wrote Trillanes a letter asking him to identify the powerful person “in the interest of truth, justice and fairness.”
Reyes’ letter read in part: “[K]nowing you to be a forthright and just person, I am confident that when you do name this powerful person, you would be able to substantiate the allegation.
“Mr. Senator, you owe it to the ordinary citizens of this Republic that you do this. Please let us not keep the people and the issue hanging.”
On Jan. 27, when the Senate blue ribbon committee opened its inquiry into Garcia’s plea bargain with the Office of the Ombudsman, Rabusa said Reyes, then due for retirement, had received P50 million as “send-off” money and a P5-million monthly take—charges that Reyes indirectly denied.
On Feb. 1, when Reyes’ letter was published in newspapers, Trillanes said: “I am naming him [as the powerful person].” He cited Rabusa’s testimony as evidence.
Trillanes said then that Reyes’ involvement in military corruption was not limited to Rabusa’s account. He said he was still gathering evidence in connection with the Lamitan siege of 2001, wherein government troops allegedly allowed Abu Sayyaf kidnappers to breach the military cordon and escape.
Arroyo’s phone call
Reyes took his own life while visiting his parents’ grave at Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina City on Feb. 8.
A day earlier, Reyes phoned his friend, retired Commodore Rex Robles, to report that Arroyo had phoned him to ask who delivered Reyes’ letter to Trillanes and why Robles knew about it, according to Robles himself.
But what did Reyes’ emissary tell Trillanes when he delivered the letter?
Trillanes said he could not remember the emissary’s exact words. (He also did not say when the letter was delivered, and did not name the emissary.)
“But generally he was saying that as far as General Garcia is concerned, there were transactions passing through him (Reyes) from upstairs but he (Garcia) was not getting anything from it. Rabusa and General Ligot are a different matter. Here, Rabusa revealed that General Reyes is involved,” the senator said.
Trillanes said he told the emissary that he was not referring to Reyes as the powerful person behind Garcia.
But all this changed after Rabusa came out, he said.
‘Only Malacañang’
Trillanes also said that with so much money involved, it was “impossible that this just happened at the level of General Reyes.”
“Only Malacañang makes such releases of that magnitude,” he said, but did not rule out the existence of a “syndicate” operating in the military comptroller’s office.
Trillanes acknowledged that Garcia held the answer to questions on the identity of the powerful person behind Reyes who orchestrated corruption in the military.
“General Garcia has the entire picture as far as that particular episode of corruption during that time [is concerned]. There were several corruption incidences during that administration, and at some point, one’s conscience will be pricked and they will spill the beans,” he said.
Asked if this would lead to Malacañang, he said: “We cannot preempt anything. We’ll have to produce the necessary evidence before we get there.”
‘Out of spite’
In a statement, Reyes’ lawyer Bonifacio Alentajan said Trillanes’ belated accusation that his client was the powerful person behind Garcia was “grossly irresponsible, defamatory and constituted a clear abuse of parliamentary power.”
Alentajan questioned the timing of Trillanes’ accusation which, he said, was made “out of spite.”
He said it was “an absolute falsehood because General Garcia never served as AFP comptroller when Secretary Reyes was AFP chief of staff.” With a report from Cynthia D. Balana
original link: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]