FORMER Armed Forces budget officer George Rabusa amended his plunder complaint filed with the Department of Justice (DOJ) in connection with the alleged misuse of military funds to include more respondents, such as the North Luzon Command chief, Lt. Gen. Gaudencio Pangilinan, a retired major general and three state auditors.
Aside from Pangilinan, Rabusa named the other respondents as retired Maj. Gen. Ernesto Boac, and state auditors Arturo Besana, Crisanto Gabriel and Manuel Warren.
In his 105-page amended complaint, Rabusa said he decided to include Pangilinan as respondent as he may have served as “bagman” for the kickbacks allegedly received by the late Armed Forces chief of staff Arturo Enrile.
Pangilinan, according to Rabusa, served as Enrile’s executive assistant.
On the other hand, Rabusa said Boac may have participated in corrupt activities, too, when he served as budget officer of the now- defunct Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Comptrollership (J6), while the three other respondents may have also knowingly allowed the illegal practice.
“We have to amend it [complaint] because we obtained additional documents,” Rabusa told reporters.
The DOJ is conducting preliminary investigation into the plunder complaint earlier filed by Rabusa against 17 members of the Armed Forces, including eight generals allegedly involved in corrupt activities in the military.
In his complaint-affidavit, Rabusa named retired generals Jacinto Ligot, Carlos Garcia, Diomedio Villanueva, Roy Cimatu, Hilario Atendido, Efren Abu and Epineto Logico, and Brig. Gen. Benito de Leon, who is still in the active service, as respondents.
Also charged were colonels Cirilo Tomas Donato, Roy Devesa, Emerson Angulo, Gilbert Gapay, Robert Arevalo and Ernesto Paranis (Ret.); and Navy Capt. Kenneth Paglinawan, former accounting division chief Generoso del Castillo, and former Intelligence Service, Armed Forces resident auditor Divina Cabrera.
Specifically, Rabusa accused the respondents of violation of Section 2 of Republic Act 7080, otherwise known as “An Act Defining and Penalizing the Crime of Plunder,” which punishes by reclusion perpetua “any officer, who by himself or in connivance with members of his family, relatives, business associates, subordinates or other persons…acquires ill gotten wealth in the aggregate amount of at least P50 million.”
He said the respondents connived and benefited in the long-time practice of converting funds intended for projects of various units of the Armed Forces, including its intelligence division, into personal use of the respondents.
