No way!

The supposed plea bargaining deal between government prosecutors and former general Carlos Garcia really stinks to high heavens!

Garcia is charged with plunder – a non-bailable offense – being accused of amassing over three hundred million pesos worth of assets when he was the comptroller of the AFP.

He was caught because his wife just couldn’t resist boasting and showing off when she was detained for bringing with her over a hundred thousand dollars. Even his sons are currently charged with the illegal trafficking of currency into the United States ! A whole family of criminals!

Garcia agreed to a lesser charge of direct bribery and money laundering, both bailable offenses. And post bail he did, to the amount of sixty thousand pesos. Chump change for a plunderer! He is now temporarily free, after six years of jail. And if the deal does fall through, he may no longer be required to go back in jail as he has already served the required sentence for his lesser crime. Right.

Why, after six years of trying a perceived “strong” case against a plunderer, would the government enter into a plea bargaining deal? You only do that if the case is weak? How can a case be weak, against a military man who has more than three hundred million pesos worth of assets?

Can he actually explain how he acquired such wealth? Can he explain how his sons had in their possession over a hundred thousand dollars while entering the US ? All that on a general’s salary.

I don’t care how many stars he has on his shoulders. He can have all the stars he wants but he definitely cannot amass that kind of wealth as a military man in the Philippines! And if anything, the prosecutors of this case must be investigated!

This deal is so wrong in so many aspects, and it sends very wrong signals to so many sectors. What if another general follows in his footsteps? Apparently, you can get away with it, or at least part of it. What’s six years in jail in exchange for millions of pesos?

Hubert Webb had to spend fifteen years of his life almost rotting in prison, and he’s innocent! There lies the true injustice. What does this say to the enlisted man, the junior officers? That their gripes are justified after all? That the corruption among the top brass is appalling? And to top it all, it thumbs its nose at the President’s program of change, transparency and promise of going after all those who have benefited from graft and corruption.

Carlos Garcia is a poster boy of military corruption. He cannot go scot-free. No way.

Good thing we have a quick acting Secretary of Justice!