Rex Robles talked to the Inquirer late Wednesday to correct what he said was the “unnecessary diversion” of the separate ongoing House and Senate investigations into the case of former military comptroller Carlos Garcia—who is charged with stealing P303 million from military coffers—to focus mainly on individuals like former Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes and other retired Armed Forces chiefs.

Robles said Congress should dig deeper into the corruption cases involving Garcia, particularly into allegations that he is a citizen of the United States and is facing four money laundering and racketeering cases in the US Attorney General’s Office.

“I think that people who are still active in the military and the ‘real power’ behind Garcia are working to clear him and make Reyes the fall guy,” said Robles.

“For all I know he (Reyes) is guilty, but what I care about is how they are playing the public and making a mockery of the justice system,” said Robles, who admitted that he was a close friend of Reyes.

Suspicious of Golez

Robles noted in particular how Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez, a former national security adviser, has tried to allegedly turn the Garcia probe—which began as an inquiry into the plea bargain between Garcia and the Ombudsman—into a witch-hunt of former AFP top brass when he declared that Reyes was the power behind Garcia and that Garcia should be made eligible as a state witness because “he is not the most guilty.”

Golez made these statements on January 15, weeks before Senator Antonio Trillanes claimed that Reyes was the real power behind Garcia and former military budget officer George Rabusa dropped his bombshell at the Senate, claiming that he handed over to Reyes a P50 million “pabaon” (going-away present) when the latter retired.

Robles said he was already suspicious of Golez’s motives back in 2004 when Golez, who then headed the House defense committee probing Garcia’s corruption cases, ignored him after inviting him to a committee hearing.

Robles, who was asked to appear at the hearing as a member of the Feliciano Commission that investigated the July 2003 failed coup or the Oakwood mutiny, said that Golez glossed over the information he offered that Garcia was a “green card” holder—which US authorities neither confirmed nor denied and which was dismissed by the Arroyo government as a “blatant lie”— and had four pending cases with the US Attorney-General’s Office.

“I gave a lot of things about Garcia to the committee and they all set it aside as far as I know. If Golez had set this aside then, why is he all of a sudden standing there as a champion of Garcia and the talk has shifted from Garcia? Everything has been sidetracked from Garcia to Reyes,” he said.

“The ones who are protecting Garcia are still active and they are working through Golez, he is the one who manipulated it. He (Golez) should account for his actions,” Robles said.

Golez surprised

In a phone interview, Golez said he was surprised at Robles’ statements and did not understand “where Robles was coming from.”

“The fact that Garcia was charged and jailed and around P300 million of his assets seized and frozen proved that our 2004 House investigation of Garcia was a big success,” he said.

He also said that Rico [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations] cases in the US were not within the jurisdiction of Philippine authorities, unless there is a US effort to extradite Garcia that he was not aware of.

“What people thought was an open-and-shut case broke into the limelight because of the scandalous plea bargain agreement. Ironically for Angelo Reyes, this boomeranged on him because of the suspicion that he was the principal behind Garcia and [Lt. Gen. Jacinto] Ligot. This suspicion now appears with solid basis with the testimonies of Rabusa and now Col. (Antonio) Lim about Reyes’ alleged P10 million “pasalubong,” P5 million monthly and P50 million pabaon, plus the thousands of dollars of pocket money for Mrs. Reyes for her numerous foreign trips,” said Golez.

“Looks like Reyes and Garcia could end up as joint respondents in a plunder case. As they say, there’s the long arm of the law and crime does not pay,” he said.

Robles said that based on the testimony of Rabusa and former state auditor Heidi Mendoza, Reyes was not in a position to protect Garcia since he retired in 2002.

“His [Garcia’s] protection is obviously coming from very high places. Do you think Reyes can order the Ombudsman or the COA chief to do all of these things? Reyes’ case is important but it is just about payoffs. Garcia’s case is about how the justice system is being corrupted after he was caught red-handed,” he said.

Rat on corrupt superiors

In Malacañang, Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. encouraged soldiers to denounce any superior they knew to be corrupt and assured the rank-and-file that the government was committed to cleaning up the military.

“Mechanisms have been put in place to protect the Armed Forces coffers from abuse and to make sure that transactions are transparent and honest, that supplies and equipment intended for our soldiers reach them,” Ochoa said in statement.

“But this I ask from our troops: Be vigilant and report misuse of funds by your superiors,” he added.

“Our commitment to the military as well as all government agencies with respect to our fight against graft and corruption is solid and firm,” said presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda.

He said Rabusa, Mendoza and Lim came out because of the Aquino administration’s platform against graft.

“These people are coming out because there is an administration that is sympathetic and will protect their rights and will protect their safety when it comes to uncovering anomalies in the government,” Lacierda said.

Gil Cabacungan, Phil. Daily Inquirer