Cimatu to file countercharges vs Rabusa

MANILA, Philippines - Former Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff Roy Cimatu has denied before the Department of Justice (DOJ) the plunder charge filed against him and other former top military officials by retired lieutenant colonel George Rabusa, who exposed the alleged corruption in the military through a fund conversion scheme.

He is also planning to file countercharges against Rabusa for purportedly manufacturing documents and forging his signatures on them, according to his lawyer Sixto Antonio.

During a preliminary investigation hearing last Thursday, Antonio said some documents were unsigned, indicating that these were probably manufactured.

“Usually the documents are signed, certified. There are officers that sign those documents. And in some official documents they reflect the name of the department where it came from. But it appears that those documents (submitted by Rabusa) don’t reflect the name of the department where those documents came from,” he argued.

Antonio said Cimatu is considering filing charges of perjury and forgery against Rabusa for submitting a document purportedly signed by the retired general.

“We have been able to establish that it is not his initial and not his signature. We got certification of AFP attesting to the signature of Gen. Cimatu based on official files,” the counsel explained.

Just like his fellow former chiefs of staff Diomedio Villanueva and Efren Abu, Cimatu said the insinuations of Rabusa were a fabrication as he belied the allegation he had pocketed at least P50 million in AFP funds.

He asked the investigating panel chaired by Prosecutor General Claro Arellano to dismiss Rabusa’s plunder complaint for lack of evidence.

Cimatu, who personally subscribed his 40-page counter-affidavit in the DOJ, said the whistleblower is not able to prove that he had “conspired with others in raiding the AFP coffers from 1994 to 2004.”

Cimatu, a product of the Philippine Military Academy class of 1970 and a former special envoy to the Middle East, submitted his answer to the complaint after the DOJ panel rejected his bid for the production of more documents in support of Rabusa’s charges.

Villanueva and Abu already submitted their respective counter-affidavits in last July 28.

Apart from the the three former AFP chiefs, other respondents including former military comptrollers Lt. Gen. Jacinto Ligot and Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia have also submitted their counter-affidavits.

The others are: Col. Cirilo Tomas Donato, Col. Roy Devesa, Maj. Emerson Angulo, retired Maj. Gen. Hilario Atendido, B/Gen. Benito de Leon, retired Lt. Col. Ernesto Paranis, Capt. Kenneth Paglinawan, Col. Gilbert Gapay, Col. Robert Arevalo, Maj. Gen. Epineto Logico, retired Lt. Gen. Gaudencio Pangilinan, and retired Maj. Gen. Ernesto Boac.

Rabusa also implicated other retired and incumbent state auditors from the Commission on Audit: Arturo Besana, Crisanto Gabriel, and Manuel Warren, Generoso del Castillo and Divina Cabrera.

The DOJ panel has already submitted the complaint for resolution.