Blue Ribbon to resume probe on AFP corruption

MANILA, Philippines - The Senate Blue Ribbon committee will resume the inquiry into alleged massive corruption in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Monday.

Blue Ribbon committee chairman Sen. Teofisto Guingona III scheduled the hearing after he failed to secure plenary approval for his partial committee report on the plea bargain deal with former military comptroller Carlos Garcia.

Guingona said he was waiting for the arrival of Sen. Edgardo Angara from an official trip to Mexico before he would present his partial committee report, which was met with questions by his fellow senators when presented to them earlier this week. The Senate session was suspended last Wednesday without tackling the partial report.

Invited to this Monday’s hearing are Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin; newly appointed Armed Forces chief Lt. Gen. Eduardo Oban Jr.; Brig. Gen. Benito de Leon (chief, AFP MFO); Col. Antonio Ramon Lim (PAF-GSC), former deputy budget officer; former AFP comptroller retired Lt. Gen. Jacinto Ligot; former budget officer and Senate witness retired Lt. Col. George Rabusa; Mrs. Erlinda Ligot and her brother, Edgardo Yambao.

The Guingona report on the plea bargain deal had recommended that Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez and the team of the special prosecutors led by Wendell Barras-Sulit be held liable for betrayal of public trust.

The report called for the impeachment of Gutierrez and the removal from post of the special prosecutors.

Although the partial committee report was circulated among senators and gathered more than the required majority of signatures, about nine senators signed “with reservations” on the issue of Gutierrez. 

They said they wanted to exercise impartiality since there is an impeachment complaint pending at the House of Representatives against Gutierrez, aside from the possibility that the senators would act as judges once the Senate convenes as an impeachment court.

No less than Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile had said that the Blue Ribbon committee should revise its recommendations.

“I have the highest respect for the Senate President and his wisdom. However, I also believe in the wisdom of the recommendation of the Blue Ribbon committee,” Guingona said.

“The Ombudsman represents the single biggest stumbling block in our quest for truth and in our crusade to recover hundreds of millions of pesos in people’s money that may be lost due to the negligence and lack of prosecutorial will on her part. Her departure from office is of paramount importance. Therefore, she must resign or be impeached,” he said.

The neophyte Blue Ribbon chairman also received flak for an attempt to meet with President Aquino to discuss the unapproved report, which put political color on the congressional actions against Gutierrez.

Aquino, chairman of the Liberal Party, had reportedly given his partymates at the House the marching orders to ensure that Gutierrez is impeached.

Guingona, also a stalwart of the Liberal Party, had backtracked from his earlier plan, saying he met with the President last Tuesday to discuss the postponement of elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). 

The partial Blue Ribbon report was not discussed during their meeting at the Palace, Guingona insisted.