Garcia moved to NBP building for ex-soldiers

MANILA, Philippines - Former military comptroller Carlos Garcia has been transferred to a building in the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) where convicted ex-military and policemen are detained.

NBP officer-in-charge Richard Schwarzkopf yesterday said Garcia was moved from a hospital at the state penitentiary to a separate building following the recommendation of jail doctors who found the former general was suffering from “uncontrollable hypertension.”

Schwarzkopf said it would be easier for Garcia to go back and forth to the hospital if he is confined at Building 11-B inside NBP’s maximum security compound instead of the Reception and Diagnostic Center.

Building 11-B, like the penitentiary hospital, is also inside the maximum security compound, Schwarzkopf pointed out.

Garcia was brought to the NBP on Sept. 16 after he was arrested to serve the general court-martial sentence of two years in hard labor.

President Aquino approved the 2005 general court-martial decision that found Garcia guilty of violating Articles of War 96 and 97 or conduct unbecoming an officer and conduct prejudicial to good order and military discipline.

The court-martial said Garcia possessed a US permanent resident status while in active service, and did not state his real assets in 2002 and 2003. He was sentenced to two years in prison with hard labor and discharged from the service. Garcia retired in 2004.

As part of the NBP protocol, newly arrived inmates are brought to the hospital for a five-day quarantine, after which the inmate will be confined for another 55 days at the RDC.

In the RDC, the inmate will undergo orientation and several tests, including psychiatric and psychological, Schwarzkopf said.

 It is also in the RDC that jail officials will determine in which building the inmate will serve his time.

Schwarzkopf said Garcia was transferred to Building 11-B on his sixth day in NBP.

He will be temporarily considered as outpatient until prison doctors would declare that he is ready for RDC transfer.

Garcia will undergo orientation inside maximum security, where other high-profile inmates are also detained.

His relatives and lawyer regularly visit the former general, said Schwarzkopf.

Garcia is also allowed regular exercise inside the compound.

Schwarzkopf, meanwhile, gave assurance they would not allow any preferential treatment to be given to Garcia while in detention.