EDITORIAL - Evading justice

He was found guilty by a military court way back in 2005, of violations of the Articles of War. All along the public thought Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia, the former military comptroller who is on trial for plunder before the Sandiganbayan, was made to serve his sentence of two years at hard labor following his conviction by a court-martial for violating two provisions of the Articles of War.

It turned out that Garcia never spent a second at hard labor for his offenses. Last week the nation learned that his sentence was never served, because the ruling of the court-martial was never affirmed by then commander-in-chief Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

The former president can point to her defense chief at the time, Norberto Gonzales, who reportedly did not act on the ruling handed down by the military court. Garcia, according to reports, had appealed his conviction. Defense officials of the Aquino administration initially could not find the records of the appeal. Last Friday, after President Aquino affirmed the conviction, Garcia was finally arrested and incarcerated at the national penitentiary.

Whether a retired soldier convicted of a military offense can serve his sentence at the New Bilibid Prisons is under debate. What Garcia’s camp is saying is that the case has prescribed and he can no longer be sent to prison for the military offenses. If this argument is upheld in court and Garcia walks, the Aquino administration should go after the former officials who made it possible for a convict to escape justice.

A special defense investigation committee has recommended a probe of Gonzales and two former defense undersecretaries who allegedly sat on the recommendations of the court-martial. One of the undersecretaries has denied knowledge of the conviction or of sitting on the case. How many other officers convicted by military courts have escaped punishment in this way? The Aquino administration should find out. If convicts have eluded justice, those who allowed it should be made to pay for it.