General Garcia's wife admitted their plunder

On June 4, 2004, Clarita D. Garcia visited the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She sought return of $100,000 smuggled cash that the ICE had seized from her sons at the San Francisco airport on Dec. 19, 2003. In turn she was told to justify her ownership of such big amount. In a handwritten statement, Clarita swore that her spouse Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia, Armed Forces of the Philippines comptroller, earned that much and more. Admission of plunder is explicit, in the broken English of US citizen Clarita:

“This statement is in addition to justify how we were able to accumulate the $100,000. As on the papers submitted by my husband, he just showed his income tax return from his earnings which showed insufficient funds to accumulate the amount brought by our two sons. Aside from my husband’s declared income, he did not mention his other income from his travel and schooling allowances, honorariums and gratuities given to him due to his added duties and functions designated for his position as Major General in the Philippine Armed Forces.

“For example:

“Honorarium benefits: My husband holds different chairmanship and directorship with different Armed Forces Institutions and he receives money allowances for every meeting that he attends weekly.

“Travel allowances: As a comptroller, J6 Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for comptrollership, he is a member of the Management Team of Projects. For example: A certain foreign company wins a bidding from the Bids & Awards Committee for selling military hardware. This procurement is approved by the Secretary of National Defense and Office of the President. Then a team committee is formed in the Armed Forces to oversee the implementation of contract. Since my husband’s office is under the Department of Budget & Management that holds the budget of the whole government, his office is part of the inspection team. In one of the provisions of the contract, a team of committee will oversee the implementation of the contract before, during and after. During the before portion of the contract, my husband goes to inspect the site or location of the plant of the contracted party. Then during the during portion of the contract, he goes back to the contracted country to see the actual products. During the after portion of the contract, he returns to the contracted country to accept the finished product. During these travels, my husband always brings me along and we are each given travel allowances by the proponents/host country. He is also given by his office stipend & allowances to be used at his discretion. As a wife I am also given an envelope as they called ‘shopping money’ that I can use for my own discretion, no receipt of how we use the stipends are ever required. Business class airfare/First class hotel accommodations and transportation in are provided by the host/proponents and this happens on every trip since 1993 to present. Our meals, purchase of souvenirs and cost of visiting sites are also paid for by our host. As a result, our allowances are not used and we are allowed to keep them. I am unable to provide the exact amount of each stipend/allowances because it varies from country to country we are assigned to visit.

“When my husband is assigned to travel domestically in the Philippine Islands to conduct inspection on different military camps, he is also given stipend/allowances and also often given gratuities.

“With regards to expenses such as salaries for our drivers, security guards, their wages are paid for by the government. My husband’s office are provided with government vehicles, free gasoline, housing allowances and lots of gratuities, gifts received from colleagues. This is again part of the PERKS that my husband received from holding a key position in the Philippine Armed Forces.

“Also, when he was sent for schooling abroad, his salaries and allowances goes to his savings. The counterpart country also give him stipend and housing allowance. For example: when he took his Masters Degree at Monterey Post Naval Graduate School, CA 1993-1995; for those period he was given allowance from his country and counterpart country. Since I am a license registered nurse in Calif., I was able to work for 2 years as a nurse that also contribute to our income. This money was not only accumulated for 1-2 years but this is our accumulated savings for the past years.

“With regards to my income from the resort and orchard that came from my parents inheritance, Philippine laws allow the reporting of income, for the first to two years of operation, as a loss. Then even though the corporation made profits since its start of operations, we reported a loss the first two years of operations.

“As an American given or accumulating peso funds, I always change these peso funds to dollar money, including all the profits of our corporations that accumulated through the years.

“Signed: Clarita D. Garcia”

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The spouses Garcia and three adult sons have since been indicted for plunder. Last week Ombudsman prosecutors cut a deal for Garcia to plead guilty to lesser offenses, on the pretext that evidence of plunder is weak.

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 “When men break others’ hearts, more likely than not they will remain broken.” Shafts of Light, Fr. Guido Arguelles, SJ

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