EDITORIAL - The short arm of the law

Retired Army Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia, his wife and their three sons have been charged with the capital offense of plunder involving over P300 million. Yesterday Garcia’s classmate and fellow major general, Ralph Flores of the Air Force, was stripped of his two stars and demoted to colonel for falsifying his birth records to extend his service in the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Other ranking military officers are facing charges in military and civilian courts for corruption and other offenses.

The campaign to weed out undesirables from the AFP is in high gear. Prosecutors, however, have to make sure that those who are being prosecuted will be around to take their punishment. All of Garcia’s three sons are now reportedly in the United States. Garcia and his wife Clarita have been banned from leaving the Philippines, but a report yesterday said the wife could not be found, although it appeared she was still in the country.

Because of the pace of the administration of justice, it is not unusual for prominent suspects to leave the Philippines before an order stopping their departure can be issued. Rod Lawrence Strunk left the country for the United States before he could be indicted for the murder of his wife, actress Nida Blanca. Dante Tan of the BW stock manipulation scandal also skipped town as Joseph Estrada fell from power.

Past experience has shown that the arm of the law can be notoriously short in this country, and prosecutors should have already learned their lesson. Several cronies of Ferdinand Marcos fled the country after his ouster and to this day have not been made to answer for the abuses committed during the dictatorship. The whereabouts of some of these cronies, among them Herminio Disini, remain unknown.

Those cases of ill-gotten wealth are two decades old. Now prosecutors are once again going after unexplained wealth, and some of the principal accused are missing. The anti-corruption campaign has racked up impressive gains in the past months. But if those indicted keep skipping town, never to be seen again, this campaign can quickly degenerate into a farce.