Garcia’s wife, 3 sons face arrest for plunder

The Sandiganbayan ordered yesterday the arrest of the wife and three sons of former Armed Forces comptroller Carlos Garcia in connection with the P303.27-million plunder charge filed against the family last year.

Sandiganbayan Sheriff Edgardo Urieta said the warrants of arrest for Clarita Depakakibo-Garcia and the general’s sons Ian Carl, Juan Paulo and Timothy Mark were signed by the anti-graft court’s Second Division chairman Associate Justice Edilberto Sandoval.

Copies of the arrest warrant will be given to the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to track down the family. The anti-graft court has set no bail for their temporary liberty.

"We will be coordinating with these agencies. We will exert effort to look for them," Urieta said.

Urieta added they had information that Clarita was still hiding somewhere in the country.

There had been previous attempts to summon Clarita and her children for a forfeiture lawsuit pending with the Sandiganbayan’s Fourth Division but the efforts failed.

The court’s Sheriff and Security Office was then forced to serve the summons on Garcia himself who at the time was detained at the holding facilities of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP).

Garcia was charged as the principal accused in the plunder case while his wife and children were held liable for allegedly helping him conceal the retired general’s ill-gotten wealth.

The former general had been sentenced to two years hard labor by a military tribunal, which observers described as a mere slap on the wrist considering the degree of the offense.

Prosecutors have so far discovered 41 bank accounts in the name of the Garcia family.

Several other bank accounts had been emptied before a freeze order was issued by the Court of Appeals, acting on the request of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).

Aside from the bank accounts, prosecutors have also traced two condominium units in New York, along with a house and lot in Ohio, US, listed as owned by the Garcias.

The Ombudsman said Garcia also purchased properties in Iloilo, Batangas and Baguio City as well as a fleet of expensive vehicles.

The Office of the Solicitor General said the Garcias maintained seven accounts at branches of Land Bank of the Philippines in Greenhills and Camp Aguinaldo; 12 accounts at the Allied Banking Corp.; one account at Banco de Oro Universal Bank; two accounts at Bank of the Philippine Islands; eight at United Coconut Planters Bank; six accounts at Planters Development Bank; and four at the Armed Forces-Police Savings & Loan Association Inc. (AFPSLAI).

The bank accounts were either under Garcia’s name or that of Clarita and their children.

Prosecutors also traced P185 million worth of reported transactions by Garcia including the purchase of a P42.8-million Trump Park Avenue condominium in New York, three outward dollar remittances worth P49.7 million from January to February this year, a P44.6-million deposit in one bank, dollar transactions worth P36.96 million officially recorded by US authorities, and the $100,000 in cash seized from Garcia’s sons Ian Carl and Juan Paolo at the San Francisco Airport in December 2003.

US authorities also discovered that Garcia owned a $750,000-condominium unit at 222 East 34th Street in New York and a house at 625 Vancouver Drive, Westerville, Ohio.

Records at the Land Transportation Office (LTO) also revealed Ian Carl had "at least" three vehicles registered under his name.

These include a 1995 Toyota Truck bus, a 1995 Isuzu Elf truck, and a 2003 Honda CRV utility vehicle.

On the other hand, the former general and Clarita have at least five registered cars, among them a 1997 Honda Civic, a 1997 Mitsubishi L-300 van, a 2001 Toyota Rav 4, a 1998 Toyota Hi-Lux, and a 1983 Toyota car.

Prosecutors noted Clarita’s admission to US authorities that her husband routinely received money and "gifts" for approving military contracts with private contractors proved he violated the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

Clarita supposedly handed over a handwritten supplemental statement to the US authorities, describing in detail the kind of work her husband did to merit the gifts and gratitude money they had been receiving.

This, in effect, was an open admission that the general’s salary as AFP comptroller was insufficient to justify even the $100,000 seized by the US authorities from their sons. — Mike Frialde