Whistle-blower George Rabusa on Thursday claimed that Diomedio Villanueva was allocated around P160 million and Roy Cimatu, P80 million as part of the AFP’s pabaon system.

But Rabusa, who served as military budget officer from 2000 to 2002, added that he was not sure if Villanueva had indeed received the P160 million, which he said he had raised from the old “provision for command-directed activities” (PCDA) budget.

He said he turned over the amount in increments of around P10 million each on several occasions to his then boss, military comptroller Carlos Garcia.

“I had doubts,” Rabusa said at the resumption of the Senate blue ribbon committee’s inquiry into the plea bargain between Garcia and state prosecutors. “I was tempted to ask General Villanueva, but protocol-wise, it seemed that I would bypass (my boss) General Garcia, so I just let it go.”

Rabusa said he eventually got the chance to ask Villanueva about the matter in a phone conversation after Garcia had retired. He said he was then asking for financial help but that Villanueva begged off for lack of money.

He recalled asking Villanueva if the latter had received the P160 million from Garcia. “Ha?” he quoted Villanueva as saying.

“He was surprised, like he didn’t know about it. So I don’t know now where the P160 million went,” Rabusa said.

The amounts for the pabaon allegedly allocated for Villanueva, Cimatu and Reyes—all no-shows at Thursday’s hearing—were shown in a PowerPoint presentation prepared by Rabusa.

New witness

The retired lieutenant colonel was assisted by a new witness, Lt. Col. Antonio “Sonny” Lim, who was his deputy at the budget department at the general headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo. (See profile on this page.)

Lim, who occasionally wiped off tears, asked to be made a state witness and provided immunity from suits that might be filed against him in connection with his testimony.

At one point, Rabusa sought to boost Lim’s morale and reminded him: “I suffered a stroke, but here I am testifying.”

Lim corroborated Rabusa’s account that the latter had delivered at least P160 million to Garcia in batches. He admitted that it was he who arranged the bulky cash for each delivery.

“We [put the money] in an expandable long envelope,” he said.

Rabusa said Garcia had instructed him to set aside P160 million for Villanueva’s retirement. According to a bank document included in his presentation, P95 million was first deposited on July 19, 2001, and P65 million was kept in the bank on Sept. 12 of that year.

The total deposit had earned interest of P4.1 million by the time Rabusa made the last withdrawal on April 16, 2002, according to the document signed by Bernie Tocmo, manager of the Security Bank branch on Herrera Street in Makati City.

Rabusa said he decided to close the account in anticipation of the formal creation of the Anti-Money Laundering Council.

Garcia also ordered that a pabaon be set aside for Cimatu upon his retirement in 2002, Rabusa said.

“He’d instructed me, ‘Let’s prepare a pabaon for General Cimatu in the amount of P80 million,’” Rabusa said in reply to a question from Sen. Jinggoy Estrada.

Rabusa had earlier testified that Reyes was allocated P50 million in pabaon and that he personally delivered the money accompanied by Garcia’s successor, Jacinto Ligot.

He said that in the cases of Villanueva and Cimatu, he delivered the money to Garcia.

“Different comptrollers, different styles,” he said.

Lim corroborated Rabusa’s testimony that Cimatu received a monthly take of P5 million.

Garcia’s non-answers

“I gave it to J6 (then under Garcia),” Lim said, adding that he withdrew P5 million per month for Cimatu for two months when he was the acting budget officer. “I don’t know if it was delivered, but I was instructed to give the money to General Garcia.”

He was not aware of any sendoff money for Cimatu.

Senators took turns in extracting confirmation—or any other significant comment—from Garcia. But the retired general repeatedly invoked his right against self-incrimination.

An angry Senator Estrada, who had brought Rabusa and Lim to the committee inquiry, threatened to have Garcia detained.

“Mr. Chair, if this will be the answer of this general all throughout [the hearing] and the Ombudsman cannot jail him, let us be the one to do that,” Estrada said, addressing Sen. Teofisto Guingona III.

Estrada was particularly incensed when Garcia refused to answer whether he had indeed received the P160 million intended for Villanueva.

After a brief break, Guingona said citing Garcia for contempt and detaining him would be decided in an upcoming caucus among the blue ribbon committee members. He said there was no quorum to decide on the matter.

Ligot was equally silent, and also consistently denied accompanying Rabusa to deliver the P50 million to Reyes.

He likewise denied Rabusa’s claim that Reyes had gifted him with a Swiss watch.

In an effort to help Ligot remember, Estrada quoted Rabusa’s recollection of his meetings with his superiors: “I would wear the watch to our meetings, and Reyes was so proud that he would show us how the compass works. And Ligot would chime in and say he’s also wearing the watch.”

But Ligot was firm: “I do not have a watch from Angie Reyes.” He conceded, however, that there were a few times he and Rabusa went together to Reyes’ “White House” (official residence of the chief of staff in Camp Aguinaldo) to consult the latter on some matters.

Ligot also said he was not aware of any “pasalubong” (welcome) and pabaon systems in the AFP.

‘James Bond’ etc.

Rabusa said that during Villanueva’s time, the latter wanted the PCDA fund “preserved.”

In his previous testimony, he said the fund operated like a pot, which was the alleged source of “startup” and retirement gifts for chiefs of staff.

Rabusa identified mechanisms within the AFP which allowed the budget group to supposedly “convert” cash and raise the PCDA fund. Each time, a unit or office that became party to conversion allegedly got a percentage in commission.

He said a “James Bond 007” conversion style involved the Intelligence Service of the AFP, which supposedly got 10 percent of the amount converted.

Of the 10-percent commission, 1 percent went to the accounting officer and 2 percent to the resident auditor, he said.

The blue ribbon committee decided to summon Divina Cabrera, former Isafp resident auditor, to the next hearing tentatively set on Monday.

Other bombshells

In two other bombshells, Rabusa alleged that Reyes once authorized the purchase of P200 million worth of howitzer ammunition from Thailand without a public bidding.

He said the purchase was financed by savings from the salary of military personnel. But he admitted that the purchase did not necessarily mean that the soldiers did not get their salary.

Instead, the money used represented the savings from the salary budget released by the Department of Budget and Management. (Savings are made if the budget department allocated for, say, 115,000 troops, but the AFP actually had only 100,000.)

The second bombshell was about the allegedly questionable purchase of “unmanned aerial vehicles” (UAVs) worth $2 million during Cimatu’s term.

As in the howitzer ammunition purchase, Rabusa said the procurement did not go through public bidding.

He said the UAVs bought from an Israeli company recommended by a retired official later “crashed” when used in actual operation.

Christian Esguerra & TJ Burgonio, Phil. Daily Inquirer