“I’m detailing my knowledge of corruption and the rotten system in the Armed Forces,” the former military officer said in a brief phone interview.

Following his exposé on the AFP practice of paying off the top brass with huge sums of skimmed off military funds, Rabusa is seen by lawmakers as a credible state witness against the officials.

President Benigno Aquino III has given orders to the justice and national defense departments to investigate the allegations with the goal of prosecuting liable officials.

Rabusa said he discussed in detail the “process and flow” of conversion, the standard practice of pooling funds for distribution to ranking officials.

By executing the affidavit, he said he was reinforcing his testimony before the Senate on Thursday, this time “with more facts and [details about] the personalities during my time.”

“I’m emphasizing corruption and the rotten system,” he said.

In last week’s Senate blue ribbon committee inquiry into the plea bargain between former military comptroller Carlos Garcia and prosecutors in connection with Garcia’s plunder case, Rabusa divulged a military tradition of paying off the top brass.

Recalling his experience as a budget officer, Rabusa said the payoffs came mainly from an annual payola pot collected from the different units of the military.

Rabusa said Reyes received a regular P5 million payoff in his 20 months in office, and was gifted with some P50 million as send-off money on his retirement in 2001, a charge denied by Reyes.

The next AFP chiefs of staff, Villanueva and Cimatu, each received P10 million as a “start-up fund,” he said.

Rabusa admitted that he also shared in the annual pot of P480 million, known as the provisions for command-directed activities (PCDA) and distributed by the comptroller at the discretion of the AFP chief of staff.

He said he and his then boss, comptroller Garcia, “converted” almost P1 billion between 2000 and 2001.

From 2000 to 2002

Rabusa said his affidavit would cover the period when he served as budget officer from 2000 to 2002 under Reyes, Villanueva and Cimatu, and under comptrollers Jacinto Ligot and Garcia.

“I can’t talk beyond that or before that. Otherwise, we will not be perceived as credible,” he said.

Rabusa declined to go into specifics so as not to preempt the contents of his affidavit which he said would be completed soon.

Asked if he would appear as a witness in the investigation by the justice department, he said: “Do I have a choice? Why would I make the accusation if I will not appear in the trial?”

The government may file charges against Reyes based on Rabusa’s testimony alone, according to Senators Franklin Drilon and Miriam Defensor-Santiago.

They said past AFP chiefs of staff should be subjected to a lifestyle check and be summoned to the blue ribbon inquiry.

Rabusa credible

The senators agreed that Rabusa’s testimony was credible enough to be the basis for filing charges against Reyes in a court and that Rabusa could turn state witness.

“I view him and his testimony to be credible,” Drilon, who was present when Rabusa made his damning testimony, said in an interview. “You can’t secure a conviction without his testimony.”

Sen. Francis Escudero also found Rabusa more credible than Reyes. “He was forthright compared to Reyes,” he said.

Escudero said Reyes “is not that old or senile to forget,” referring to the latter’s claim that he did not remember receiving P50 million in send-off money when he retired.

Escudero, chair of the Senate defense and security committee, said in Davao City that his committee would summon other former AFP chiefs of staff because Rabusa had claimed that the practice of “pabaon” was a tradition in the military.

He said the practice, if true, was lamentable, noting that soldiers were dying on the field and enduring difficult living conditions while their officers were living luxuriously.

Plunder, bribery

Santiago urged the President to file charges against Reyes based on Rabusa’s testimony to show that the government was taking swift action on the exposé.

“He’s a dead man walking,” she said over the radio.

Santiago added that Reyes should be charged with plunder, malversation of public funds and bribery.

“There’s an eyewitness. Reyes can be convicted on the basis of a testimony of one eyewitness alone,” she said.

Because Rabusa was an eyewitness, his testimony was stronger than any documentary evidence, and would not require corroboration, said Santiago, a former trial court judge.

Drilon, a former justice secretary, said proof of Rabusa’s truthfulness was his tale of converting P50 million into dollars before he and Ligot delivered this to Reyes, then the AFP chief of staff.

“That’s an indication that he was telling the truth. You can’t invent that kind of story. If you noticed, Reyes and Ligot did not deny his statement. They said that they don’t remember,” he said.

To prove the case is beyond reasonable doubt, Drilon said Rabusa’s testimony should be corroborated by documentary evidence, such as checks that were signed in connection with withdrawals from the PCDA.

State witness

Drilon and Santiago said that the government could use Rabusa as a state witness against Reyes and, in exchange, drop the charges against him.

“His testimony is necessary for conviction. Secondly, he may appear to be the least guilty,” Drilon said.

He said dropping the charges against Rabusa would be a condition for his turning a witness, but it was up to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to decide.

Rabusa is facing a perjury case for allegedly misdeclaring his wealth in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth. He is said to have amassed some P50 million during his stint as Garcia’s budget officer.

While the justice and national defense departments have yet to open investigations of his exposé, Santiago pushed for a lifestyle check on past AFP chiefs of staff, beginning with former President Fidel V. Ramos who served as AFP chief of staff under then President Corazon C. Aquino.

Now that a former key budget officer has opened the Pandora’s box, the AFP said it was willing to disclose past malpractices in the use of its funds.

AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Ricardo David Jr., who was appointed last July 2 shortly after Mr. Aquino assumed office, has ordered his staff to fully cooperate with the investigation.

“It’s all-out, all-out (cooperation). In fact, the chief of staff has already informed everyone to prepare, to assist and provide information,” the military spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Jose Mabanta Jr., said on Sunday.

TJ Burgonio, Phil. Daily Inquirer