Court of Appeals to hear petition seeking protection for Gadian

MANILA, Philippines – The Court of Appeals (CA) is set to hear today a petition seeking to protect Lt. Senior Grade Mary Nancy Gadian, the Navy officer who exposed the alleged anomaly in the P46-million fund for the RP-US Balikatan exercises in 2007, from supposed threats from military officials she has implicated in the fund controversy.

For the first time since she had gone into hiding after her exposé, Gadian is appearing in public and will finally unveil details of her exposé when she attends the hearing today at 10 a.m., according to lawyer Harry Roque.

The CA ninth division, upon orders of the Supreme Court, is tasked to determine if there is basis in Gadian’s allegation and if threats against her life are real.

According to Roque, the appeals court will specifically decide on the petition filed by Gadian’s older sister, Nedina Diamante, seeking to make permanent the writ of amparo issued by the SC for the protection of the whistleblower.

Roque believes Gadian would not be arrested by the Armed Forces especially after Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro reportedly stated that the order for the arrest of the fund scam whistleblower was superseded by the writ of amparo issued by the High Court.

He said the temporary protection writ of the SC on Gadian is valid until the CA issues a ruling of their application for temporary restraining order directing four active Armed Forces and Navy officials and a former official “to refrain from issuing or carrying out any threat to the life, liberty and security” of his client.

Roque said Gadian is also considering an offer from a group of nuns to provide her sanctuary.

In its writ of amparo issued last May 21, the SC also ordered the respondents – Armed Forces chief of staff Lt. Gen. Victor Ibrado, Navy flag officer-in-command Vice Admiral Ferdinand Golez, Western Mindanao Command chief of staff Col. Joel Ibanez, management and financial officer Lt. Col. Antonio Dacanay, and former commander Ret. Lt. Gen. Eugenio Cedo – to submit verified return of writ and their comment on the petition on or before the hearing.

Diamante lamented that her sister has gone into hiding precisely due to threats to her life allegedly to prevent her from disclosing what she knows about the alleged fund misuse.

She told the Court that she received a text message from her sister last May 16 saying that a “shoot-to-kill” order was issued against the latter.

She also revealed that they have noticed some individuals monitoring their house in La Paz, Iloilo City since last week.

Someone also knocked on their door and warned them of the alleged ongoing surveillance of their house by the military.

A regional director of Iloilo-based Federation of Bantay Bayan Foundation Inc. and former barangay kagawad, Diamante said they have already sought the help of Jaro, Iloilo Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.

In seeking relief from the SC, she was joined by party-list groups Gabriela and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan.

“Instead of encouragement, Gadian is now being attacked to prevent her from speaking the truth. We are asking the judiciary to protect her since the same aid could not be expected from the government, which has a long standing record of silencing whistleblowers like Gadian whose exposé implicates its military generals,” Gabriela said in a statement.

Gadian was assigned deputy chief of Civil Military Operations (CMO) during the conduct of the Balikatan joint military exercises in Western Mindanao from 2002 to 2007.

Although she did not directly handle the CMO funds, she was responsible for their allocation.

Gadian, who has been ordered arrested for desertion and insubordination, earlier volunteered to provide the Senate with documents supporting her claim that Cedo used the month-long Balikatan in Jolo, Sulu as a “milking cow.”

Of the P46-million fund, only P2.3 million was released to Filipino soldiers, she disclosed.