3 ex-AFP officials convicted for retirement fund misuse

MANILA, Philippines – The Sandiganbayan has sentenced three former officials of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to a maximum of 20 years in prison for misusing more than P250 million in soldiers’ retirement funds.

In a ruling released yesterday, the Sandiganbayan’s Second Division found retired brigadier general Jose Ramiscal Jr., former president of the AFP-Retirement and Separation Benefit System; Julian Alzaga, former chief of the AFP-RSBS legal department; and Manuel Satuito, former chief of the AFP-RSBS documentation department guilty of the complex crime of malversation of public funds through falsification of public documents.

Elizabeth Liang and Jesus Garica, owners of Concord Resources Inc., were also found guilty of the same offense.

They were also fined P250,318,200 each – the amount the anti-graft court found to have been malversed.

The 36-page ruling was penned by Associate Judge Napoleon Inoturan.

Based on court records, Ramiscal conspired with Alzaga and Satuito in August 1996 to falsify a deed of sale to make it appear that AFP-RSBS paid Concord Resources P341,343,000 for the purchase of four lots in Barangay Makiling in Calamba, Laguna for a supposed housing project for retired soldiers.

The Office of the Ombudsman, which filed the case, said a duly notarized and registered deed of sale obtained by its field investigators showed that the purchased lots only cost P91,024,800.

The court dismissed Ramiscal’s claim that his signature in the notarized deed of sale presented by prosecutors was forged.

Since the balance of P250,318,200 remains unaccounted for, the respondents are considered to have malversed the amount for their personal benefit, the Sandiganbayan said.