A former budget officer said yesterday he would keep testifying against Philippine generals implicated in a corruption scandal despite the suicide of an ex-military chief.
Retired General Angelo Reyes, who also was a former defense chief, fatally shot himself in the chest with a pistol at his mother’s grave on Tuesday after he and two other ex-military chiefs of staff were accused of pocketing millions of dollars in funds intended for troops salaries, a hospital and combat needs, officials said.
Corruption, long entrenched in Philippine society, is an especially explosive issue in the inadequately equipped and poorly paid 120,000-strong military and has sparked several insurrections in the last two decades by disgruntled troops.
“I started this and I’ll finish it,” former military budget officer Lietenant-Colonel George Rabusa told the ABS-CBN network.
He said at least four retired generals, including two former military chiefs of staff, could be charged with plunder based on evidence in his possession.
Rabusa’s lawyer, Noel Malaya, said dozens of retired and active military personnel and some government auditors who took bribes to overlook massive corruption could also be held liable if the Department of Justice decides to charge them.
In startling testimony before the Philippine Senate last month, Rabusa claimed that Reyes and two other former military chiefs received huge payoffs and “send-off money” when they retired. He said the money came from an -illegal contingency fund collected from key military units, which were forced to cut their congressionally approved budgets for troop salaries, weapons, equipment and combat needs.
Rabusa said that military officials padded budgets for annual US-Philippine military war exercises in at least 2001 and 2002 so they could divert the excess amount to the illegal fund. As a result, the counterpart fund contributed by the US military for the exercises was also in excess, he said.
Rabusa said he did not know what happened to the additional US payment and was ready to help US authorities if they decide to investigate.
The US embassy did not specifically react to Rabusa’s claim, but said without elaborating that US authorities ensure foreign financial assistance and grants are used properly by conducting audits.
Rabusa testified that Reyes received about US$1 million when he stepped down. He said he personally delivered the money to Reyes, and that it first had to be converted into US dollars because the peso equivalent was too bulky.
A stunned Reyes denied accepting money during the Jan. 27 Senate hearing, but also declared: “I’m not a saint.”
He later filed charges against Rabusa and a senator he accused of conspiring to malign him.
Another retired military chief implicated in the scandal, Roy Cimatu, denied receiving any payoff. Cimatu returned on Tuesday from Egypt, where he helped prepare evacuation plans for Filipinos in the restive country.
Like Reyes, Rabusa said he considered committing suicide by driving his car into a Manila river, but thought his family would suffer and become the target of investigations.
He said he wept after learning about the death of Reyes, who was very close to him. He added that he should not be blamed.
“I did not kill him. He took his own life,” Rabusa said.
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
‘ABSURD MISTAKE’: The election commission said that there had been a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations ran short of ballot papers South Korean riot police yesterday cleared protesters from a Seoul polling station after a 35-hour blockade sparked by a shortage of ballot papers during local elections earlier this week. Wednesday’s election was the first nationwide vote since South Korean President Lee Jae-myung took office following the ouster of Yoon Suk-yeol over his short-lived martial law declaration. Lee’s ruling Democratic Party swept most races, but failed to flip the crucial Seoul mayoral seat. The South Korean National Election Commission apologized, blaming a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations in Seoul ran short of ballot papers. Some polling stations stayed open until 10pm to
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
A Sherpa guide was found crawling to base camp on Mount Everest a week after he went missing and was reunited with his family, who had given up hope he would return. Dawa Sherpa was last seen on Friday last week descending the mountain, but he did not reach base camp even though his client did. The pair were among the last climbers on the mountain as the climbing season came to an end and the route was dismantled. Dawa was located by a cleaning crew on Thursday morning as he was crawling down the snowy slopes around the Khumbu Icefall, just above
RSS