Retired Army Brig. Gen. Jose Ramiscal, who has faced other corruption cases before the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court, was supposed to leave for the United States yesterday to visit a sick relative, Ombudsman investigators told STAR columnist Jarius Bondoc.
But the Office of the Ombudsman effectively prevented his departure after informing the anti-graft court, through a letter, of fresh charges against Ramiscal for the overpricing of land purchased in 1996 when he was president of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Retirement and Separation Benefits System (RSBS).
The Ombudsman is set to charge Ramiscal with violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and 148 counts of estafa for falsification of public documents. His co-accused are RSBS executives Capt. Perfecto Quilicot and lawyers Meinrado Enrique Bello and Manuel Satuito.
The case stemmed from the acquisition of RSBS of 600 hectares of land bordering Laguna and Batangas from Vintage Builders Corp. intended for a housing project.
The barrio was originally owned by 148 land title holders, Ombudsman probers said.
The RSBS, created under Presidential Decree 361, manages the retirement and pension funds of soldiers and deducts a four percent contribution from their monthly pay.
During the investigation, probers discovered that the RSBS secured two different sets of deeds of sale for the same property.
Ombudsman probers said Vintage was found to have persuaded landowners to sell their lots to RSBS at a lower price of P28.2 million under "unilateral deeds of sale."
RSBS then entered into a "bilateral deeds of sale" with Vintage and the title holders for a higher price of P195.8 million, Ombudsman probers told The STAR columnist.
This resulted in an overprice of P167 million, they said.
The "unilateral deeds of sale" were filed with the Register of Deeds in Tanauan, Batangas. It was also used as basis for the payment of capital gains tax with the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
According to investigators Wendell Barreras-Sulit, John Turalba and Warlito Galisanao, the bilateral deeds of sale were kept in the RSBS vault in Camp Aguinaldo and were "utilized as supporting documents to the General Voucher processed at the RSBS for the disbursement of the higher price/consideration."
Investigators suspect conspiracy with other RSBS officials as the purchase was first approved by the RSBS investment section followed by the executive committee. Finally, the board of trustees gave its nod to the acquisition.
Records of the approvals did not show the purchase price.
"Considering the enormous amount involved, we find it strange that the fair market value was not thoroughly discussed by the committees before the recommendation for payment was approved," probers told Bondoc.
Government initially recommended the filing of graft charges against Ramiscal and company last June but was delayed after the accused filed a motion arguing the Ombudsman had no jurisdiction over RSBS since the latter is a private entity.
The Ombudsman has also ordered a probe on 17 other officers of RSBS, Vintage and First Integrated Finance Corp., which served as land consolidator to determine who else may be involved in the alleged scam.
Charges against the 148 landowners were dropped as approved by Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo, but without prejudice to reviving the case if evidence links them to the purported anomalous transaction.
Controversies have surrounded the land acquisition of RSBS in several places, including Calamba in Laguna and Iloilo City.
In August 2003, the Office of the Special Prosecutor, under Dennis Villa Ignacio, created a task force to consolidate the 239 cases filed against the military officials allegedly involved in the RSBS scam, following a Supreme Court ruling which ordered the revival of the cases.
Ramiscal, along with several others, was also accused of misappropriating more than P250 million in military retirement funds, for his personal use.
The Sandiganbayan has dismissed the cases, saying the AFP-RSBS is a private entity, but the Supreme Court ruled that the AFP-RSBS is a "government entity."
The Supreme Court reversed the Sandiganbayan’s May 2000 ruling which threw out the falsification and malversation cases against Ramiscal and his co-accused.
(See Bondoc’s "Gotcha" column on the Opinion Page for more details on Ramiscal’s case."