Vigilance vs grafters

Several days ago, U.S. ambassador Harry Thomas handed a check of $132,000 to Justice Secretary Leila De Lima. The check represented the net proceeds from the sale of a house in Buena Park, California that was formerly owned by former Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) comptroller, retired Gen. Jacinto Ligot and his wife. Did the Philippine government check with due diligence on the actual real estate value of that property?

A friend from the US tracked down through the website Zillow.com, a popular real estate database on the series of transactions that followed after the house at 7102 Stanton Avenue, Buena Park, CA, was first purchased by the Ligots on July 16, 2004 for $599,500. After administrative proceedings, the property was ordered forfeited and sold for $142,000 on Nov. 24 that same year, or this was barely four months after the Ligots bought it.

Thirteen months later, or, on Jan. 10, 2006, the property was again sold for $650,000. The current value of the house now ranges between $499,000 and $539,000. So, why was the house sold for $142,000 only?

President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and De Lima were only too ecstatic about getting that $132,000, especially after getting raving compliments from the American ambassador. At the simple turnover rites at De Lima’s office, Thomas cited the US government finally turned over this money in recognition of the sincere efforts of the new administration of President Aquino to go hard against corruption wherever it maybe found in the Philippine bureaucracy.

With the proceeds out of the forfeiture case against the Ligot couple turned over to our country’s coffer, I could not help but wonder if we could also be successful in the recovery attempts on reportedly stolen wealth by another former AFP comptroller, retired Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia. Like the Ligots, the bulk of Garcia’s loot are reportedly stashed in the US.

Garcia admitted to the lesser offenses of bribery and money laundering. Direct bribery carries a penalty of up to 12 years. He also agreed to surrender P100 million, or merely a third of the money he amassed illegally.

The prosecution claimed the deal was “consistent with the interest of the State since justice will be served proceeding from an assured and agreed plea to a lesser offense, while conserving the scarce prosecutorial resources of the State.” It also said that based on jurisprudence, a plea bargain agreement was allowed when the prosecution did not have sufficient evidence to establish the guilt of the accused.

There is something wrong somewhere in our country’s justice system. It obviously lacks the willpower to discourage those who are engaged in corrupt practices.

In the case of Garcia, he may not only walk free but may also get to keep the lion’s share of the ill-gotten wealth he and his wife amassed.

The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee investigation into this controversial plea bargaining agreement have already established the sloppy prosecution of this case from the time it was handled by former Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo all the way to his successor, Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez. Unfortunately for Gutierrez, it was only her and the prosecutors under her who reaped the whirlwind sown by their predecessors.

We hope that the same thing will not happen to the newly filed plunder cases at the Sandiganbayan against those behind the P728 million fertilizer scam led by former Agriculture Secretary Luisito Lorenzo, Undersecretary Joc-joc Bolante, among them.

The fertilizer scam case is one of the articles of impeachment against Gutierrez who is set to face trial on this at the Senate when they resume sessions on May 9. She was accused of sitting for long on this case to protect allegedly former administration officials close to ex-President Arroyo who appointed her as Ombudsman.

The government has no monopoly of big-time corruption. It’s also being committed in the private sector doing business with the government. A case in point is the syndicated estafa and economic sabotage filed by Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG) and the National Bureau of Investigation against property developer Globe Asiatique. Implicated here were Globe Asiatique president Delfin Lee along with other company officials and employees working on the Xevera housing project in Pampanga.

In the recently concluded clarificatory hearings by the DOJ on the case, it uncovered a “modified Ponzi scheme” to deceive Pag-IBIG into releasing the aggregate amount of at least P6.6 billion. The property developer allegedly enroled “ghost” or non-existent buyers to be Pag-IBIG members who can avail of housing loans. It reportedly applied for loans on behalf of the “ghost” borrowers and used the money to finance its Xevera project.

After investigations, Pag-IBIG also uncovered the fake buyers who bought more than one unit each, and that a large percentage of the houses in Xevera were unoccupied or closed. Worse, it also gave rise to the possibility that Globe Asiatique itself used dummies so it could raise funds to build more houses in the same Xevera projects. Of course, Globe Asiatique is denying all the charges, even as wave of new evidences pile up and more and more cases are being filed against it.

Lee had recently asked the DOJ to let him go to the US for medical treatment. However, a Pag-IBIG lawyer questioned the appeal, raising the point that Lee does not need to go abroad because he could be treated here in the Philippines.

The latest buzz, and here we must stress, is that it’s unverified, key players in this case are scheming to enter into a plea bargain agreement, ala General Garcia. We hope that this is plain rumor. But if this pushes through, it would further erode the people’s faith in the ability of the Aquino administration to pursue its fight against corruption.

All the evidence point to corruption and to some extent, some of them even already admitted to such. But what happens next? Nothing. That’s our biggest problem.

Thus, we must all remain vigilant so that no grafters like Ligot, Garcia, the fertilizer scam artists, and the Ponzi schemers could laugh all the way to the banks with the money they allegedly looted from their victims, the Filipino people.