Ex-military comptroller Garcia gets 14 years, fined P407 million

MANILA, Philippines — For illegally amassing P303 million when he was military comptroller, retired Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia was sentenced by the Sandiganbayan to a maximum prison term of 14 years.

Though it was not stated in the decision dated July 5, it appears that Garcia – who has been detained at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City since 2011 – has already served the minimum eight years of his sentence for two graft and corruption offenses.

The eight-page decision issued by the anti-graft court’s Second Division sentenced Garcia to four up to eight years in prison for direct bribery under Article 210 of the Revised Penal Code; and another four to six years in jail for facilitating money laundering under Section 4 (b) of Republic Act 9160 (Anti-Money Laundering Law).

Thus, Garcia is meted a minimum of eight years and a maximum of 14 years in jail, of which he has already served about 11 years.

The Sandiganbayan also ordered the disgraced military general to pay a fine of P406.3 million for the direct bribery offense and P1.5 million for facilitating money laundering for a total penalty of P407.8 million.

This order is sanctioned “with subsidiary imprisonment in case of insolvency,” which means that he has to serve imprisonment if he cannot pay the amount.

Meanwhile, the anti-graft court ordered the cases against Garcia’s wife Clarita and their three sons Carl, Juan Paulo and Timothy Mark to be temporarily archived as they remain at large.

However, it said that this is without prejudice to the cases’ revival upon their arrest or voluntary surrender.

Garcia, together with his wife and children, was originally charged with plunder in 2005 and money laundering in 2009 – both of which carry more severe punishment if convicted – for unlawfully amassing wealth by abusing his authority in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

The cases against Garcia stemmed from his alleged acceptance of kickbacks, commissions and “shopping money or gratitude money” in several government projects and transactions from 1993 until his retirement in 2004 as AFP deputy chief of staff for comptrollership.

An investigation by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee also revealed that Garcia was allowed to pocket some P165 million in “pabaon” or send-off money from the government upon his retirement in 2004.

In February 2010, however, Garcia entered into a plea bargain with the office of then Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, agreeing to enter a guilty plea to lesser and bailable offenses and pay the government some P135.4 million in exchange for the dropping of the original and more damning cases.

The Sandiganbayan approved the deal the same year, paving the way for Garcia’s pleading guilty to the lesser offenses of direct bribery and facilitating money laundering on Dec. 16, 2010.

This prompted the government, through the Office of the Solicitor General during president Benigno Aquino III’s term, to challenge the validity of the deal before the Supreme Court (SC) through a petition for certiorari.

But in its decision dated Sept. 16, 2020, the SC Third Division upheld the plea bargain deal and lifted the Temporary Restraining Order it earlier issued to the Sandiganbayan, which halted the case proceedings for several years.

“The acceptance of a plea bargain is purely upon the discretion of the prosecutor, while the approval of the plea bargain is subject to the judicial discretion of the court trying the facts. Hence, any review of a plea bargain approved by the Office of the Ombudsman would be tantamount to an appeal on a question of fact and not a proper subject of a Petition for Certiorari,” the SC ruling read, which the Sandiganbayan quoted verbatim in its decision.

Incumbent Ombudsman Samuel Martires, Ombudsman Special Prosecutor Edilberto Sandoval and then Associate Justice Teresita Diaz-Baldos were the former Sandiganbayan magistrates who allowed the plea bargain deal.

The controversial plea bargain deal led to the resignation of then ombudsman Gutierrez in 2011 amid the threat of being impeached by the Congress.