8 houses in US traced to Ligot's wife

Philstar.com - Tuesday, February 8

8 houses in US traced to Ligot's wife

MANILA, Philippines - The wives of generals allegedly had their share in the largesse illegally drawn
from military funds for their husbands, enabling them to travel in style, go on shopping sprees, and buy
houses in the United States.

At a Senate hearing yesterday, Senate President Pro-Tempore Jinggoy Estrada presented photographs
of two houses supposedly bought by Erlinda Yambao Ligot in California when her husband, Lt. Gen.
Jacinto Ligot, was the military comptroller.

Ligot was the AFP comptroller when Angelo Reyes was Armed Forces chief of staff.

The hearing was on the plea bargain deal between former military comptroller Carlos Garcia and the
Ombudsman.

There are eight houses in the US – mostly in California – in Mrs. Ligot’s name, Estrada said, citing
records.

During the hearing, Estrada confronted General Ligot about the two houses in his wife’s name, which
included a house at 7102 Stanton Avenue, Buena Park, California, purchased for $183,168 in 2002.

Prior to this, Estrada presented to Ligot some photos of a huge house at 1240 Cabernet Circle, South
Anaheim, California, reportedly purchased by Mrs. Ligot on Dec. 23, 2003. The Anaheim property was
worth $504,000.

Ligot said he was not familiar with the houses in the photos presented to him by the senator.

“You’re not familiar?” Estrada asked.

“This is the first time I saw this house,” Ligot replied.

Estrada said he had documents to show that Mrs. Ligot was the seventh owner of the house in South
Cabernet Circle while the same Mrs. Ligot was the 22nd owner of the Stanton property.

Ligot claimed he was himself surprised when the properties mentioned were included in the complaint
against him before the Ombudsman. 

When Estrada asked Ligot whether he had ever discussed with his wife where she had gotten the money
to buy the houses, Ligot invoked his right against self-incrimination. 

He said the properties were subject of forfeiture cases against him before the Sandiganbayan.

“What did you do when you received the information coming from the Ombudsman that you have
properties allegedly bought by your wife in the US?” Estrada asked.

Ligot said he asked his wife, “What happened? That was how I recalled saying. Because we really do
not have anything about these houses.”

Ligot said he couldn’t recall how the conversation with his wife ended because she went hysterical on
learning of the charges from the Ombudsman.

Dummy

Estrada said he had information that Mrs. Ligot may have been used as a dummy by the wife of
Angelo Reyes – her usual travel companion – in the case of the Anaheim property.

“You weren’t aware about the properties as you said. Although, I do not wish to confirm this, I
want to hear it from you. May nagsabi, ginawa lang dummy ang misis sa pagbili ng second
property (Somebody claimed that your wife was used as dummy for the purchase of the second
property). The first, in Buena Park in Stanton (street), that’s really yours,” Estrada said in
Filipino. “Yung Anaheim, ay kay Mrs. Reyes daw ho iyon. Nilagay lang daw ho sa pangalan ng
misis niyo (The one is Anaheim is Mrs. Reyes’ but it’s in your wife’s name). How true it that?”

Ligot again invoked his right against self-incrimination, prompting Estrada to threaten to invite
his wife for questioning in the next hearing.

Travel buddies

Estrada said Mrs. Reyes and Mrs. Ligot traveled together at least 13 times from 1999 to 2004.

Estrada cited travel documents from the Bureau of Immigration that revealed that Reyes and
Ligot were travel buddies during trips to San Francisco, California, Hong Kong, Singapore and
Bandar Seri Begawan.

They traveled to Los Angeles, California at least seven times via Philippine Airlines.

Mrs. Reyes traveled 48 times to foreign countries from 1993 to 2004 while Mrs. Ligot traveled 42
times to the United States, Singapore, and Hong Kong from 1993-2004, documents also showed.

Estrada found it unbelievable that with Ligot’s meager salary as a military general, his wife could
afford to travel so many times. “What is there in Los Angeles?” he asked.

Asked whether his wife and Reyes’ wife were close, Ligot said: “They are acquaintances,
especially in the ladies’ club.”

Whistleblower former military budget officer George Rabusa said the AFP shouldered the
airfare and hotel accommodations of Reyes’s wife and the expenses of her entourage were paid
for by the executive assistant of the sitting military chief.

At one point, Rabusa revealed that he also had to meet Mrs. Reyes when both of them were in the
United States on separate trips after she asked for more allowance.

“Sa America, nag-usap po kami sa LA (I spoke with Mrs. Reyes in LA). Kulang daw po yung ano
(allowance) nagpadagdag pa ng allowance noon (She said her allowance wad not enough and she
needed more)... I have to produce from a friend, ginawan po namin ng paraan (we found a
way)... Not less than $5,000,” said Rabusa, who was in the US at that time to audit an attaché to
Washington.

He said he also gave Reyes’ wife shopping money of up to $10,000 for foreign trips, depending on
which place she was visiting and on the number of people in her entourage.

Reacting to Ligot’s denials, Estrada said he was puzzled as to how Mrs. Ligot was able to travel
to the US when her husband received only a monthly salary of P35,000. Ligot said his wife
sometimes got help from their relatives in the US.

Diversion of UN funds

Rabusa also detailed how they diverted funds from the UN allocation for the East Timor mission.

Rabusa presented documents which showed that the higher-ups charged P7.1 million for the
inspection and repair as necessary (IRAN) of a Cessna aircraft intended for the Philippine Army.

Another item charged to the East Timor fund was the purchase of P6-million worth of firearms
released to the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces.

About P1 million charged to the East Timor fund was also among the expenses used for the
repair and rehabilitation of the AFP general headquarters hospital.

“This is valid because the hospital is used for medical processing of applicants,” Rabusa said.

He said that out of P14 million from the East Timor fund, P13 million was not related to the
peacekeeping effort.

He said diversion of the UN funds caused their depletion from P102 million to P88 million by
May 2002. - By Christina Mendez (Philstar News Service, www.philstar.com)
Angelo Reyes commits suicide
By Cynthia Balana
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 08:53:00 02/08/2011

MANILA, Philippines—(UPDATE 2) Former Armed Forces Chief and Defense Secretary Angelo
Tomas Reyes on Tuesday morning committed suicide by shooting himself in front of the grave of his
mother at the Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina City.

He was 65.

A close friend of Reyes called the Philippine Daily Inquirer to break the news, while Colonel Boogie
De Leon, a former administrative officer of Reyes when he was AFP chief, said Reyes was rushed to
the Quirino Hospital at about 7:45 a.m. to revive him. Members of his family could not be reached for
comment.

De Leon said that Reyes’s son Jett called him up to inform him of the incident.

Reyes, who earlier suffered a mild stroke before the congressional investigations on the alleged AFP
financial irregularities, said he could not take anymore the smear campaign against his name and his
family.

“Not my family,” he said.

Reyes, who loved his mother very much when she was still alive, earlier told the Philippine Daily
Inquirer in an interview that he would never do anything that would besmirch the name of “my good
mother.”

In a press conference aired on radio and television, Health Secretary Enrique Ona confirmed Reyes has
died from gunshot wound to the heart. He said Reyes was proclaimed dead on arrival at the Quirino
Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City.

Ona said the doctors tried to resuscitate Reyes who was brought to the hospital at 7:30 a.m. from
Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina City where he visited the grave of his mother.

Ona refused to say what caused the gunshot wounds and could not determine the kind of gun used,
saying all these were under investigation.

He “was brought here to the emergency room, wala nang pulso at di na humihinga. Nilagyan ng tubo at
nag-resuscitation, swero, binigyan ng gamot. But after 45 minutes, which means that at 8:32 a.m.,
talagang wala na (without pulse and not breathing. He was tubated and resuscitated, put on IV. But
after 45 minutes, which means that at 8:32 a.m., he’s really gone)."

He had a gunshot wound to the heart and an external wound to the back.

Reyes, a graduate of Philippine Military Academy Class ’66, was AFP chief under President Joseph
Estrada, and secretary of defense, interior and local government, and energy during the term of
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from 2001 to 2003. He graduated as the class valedictorian in high
school and was among the top ten graduates of the PMA.

He went on to obtain two masteral degrees, namely: Masters in Business Administration from Asian
Institute of Management in 1973 and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard's John F.
Kennedy School of Government in 1991. He also took up International Defense Management Course in
Monterey, California in 1983.

In 1987, he graduated No. 1 in Trust Operations Management Course conducted by the Trust Institutes
Foundation of the Philippines at the Ateneo Business School which eventually earned him a scholarship
to the Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois.

DZIQ: House set to investigate UN fund in military scam probe

INQUIRER.net
First Posted 08:35:00 02/08/2011

MANILA, Philippines -- The United Nations' fund that was supposed to be for use by the military in its
missions abroad will be the subject of investigation by the House of Representatives when it resumes
its investigation Wednesday, a lawmaker told Radyo Inquirer.

Muntinlupa Representative Rodolfo Biazon said he discovered that there was $3 million worth of the
money that has not been accounted for.

Biazon, a former chief of the Armed Forces, said the investigation should be "in aid of prosecution."

Both the Senate and the House are holding separate inquiries into the military fund scam that includes
millions of pesos in send-off (pabaon) money to retiring AFP chiefs and payoffs to auditors of the
Commission on Audit.

Biazon has denied that he received send-off money during his stint as head of the Armed Forces under
the administration of the late president Corazon Aquino.

For the report, listen to Radyo Inquirer, DZIQ 990.

STANDARD PRACTICE’
P20-M AFP slush fund bared
By TJ Burgonio
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:41:00 02/08/2011

MANILA, Philippines—The Armed Forces chief of staff as well as other officials had ready
cash for their personal and operational use—a P20-million “sinking fund,” a former military
budget officer said Monday.

The slush fund was on top of the initial cash gift, monthly allocation and send-off money for
the chief of staff.

Appearing at the Senate, whistle-blower George Rabusa testified that the fund had been
existing before he came aboard in 2000, and was replenished by skimming off allocations for
salaries and operational expenses of military units.

The conversion, he said, had the go-signal of military comptrollers and the knowledge of state
auditors who received commissions.

“That particular amount is intended for our superiors upstairs from the chief of staff to J6,”
Rabusa said at the inquiry into the plea bargain between former military comptroller Carlos
Garcia and prosecutors in connection with the former’s plunder case.

Standard practice

Rabusa said the fund was intended for the personal and operational expenses of the AFP chief
of staff down to the comptroller.

“We only inherited this,” he said, indicating that this had been existing before the terms of three
former AFP chiefs of staff—Angelo Reyes, Diomedio Villanueva and Roy Cimatu—under
whom he had served as budget officer.

At two previous Senate hearings, Rabusa disclosed the practice of giving an incoming chief of
staff pasalubong (initial cash gift) and an outgoing one with pabaon (send-off money).

The pasalubong was supposedly P10 million each for Villanueva and Cimatu and the pabaon
was P50 million for Reyes, P164 million for Villanueva and P80 million for Cimatu. The
amounts were in addition to the P5 million that the chief of staff was supposedly getting
monthly.
Kept in vault

Rabusa, who was a lieutenant colonel then, said the P20-million fund was kept in a vault in his
office.

When he was relieved in 2002, Rabusa said he turned over the P20 million to his successor,
then acting budget officer Col. Antonio “Sonny” Lim, who then turned over the money to then
comptroller Garcia.

Lim confirmed this, saying “General Garcia told me to turn over the amount to him. He will
take charge of the amount.”

Garcia declined to say where the money went and invoked again his right to self-incrimination,
saying his answer might be covered by two forfeiture cases he was facing in the Sandiganbayan
anti-graft court.

Skimmed off salaries

Like savings in a bank, the fund had to be maintained at P20 million, otherwise it had to be
replenished with skimmed off salaries and operational expenses in the Intelligence Service of
the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP), Rabusa said.

“This is like a sinking fund. When you compare it to water, and it reaches a critical level, you
have to do something to fill up the bottle again,” he said.

Then Col. Victor Corpus was the ISAFP chief, the former budget officer said.

Replenishment

To replenish the amount, Rabusa said the budget office would convert funds for maintenance
and other operating expenses (MOOE) and personnel services (PS) into the slush fund.

When the blue ribbon committee chair, Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, asked him if he was
converting funds meant for soldiers’ salaries, Rabusa said: “There’s no other source but the
PS.”

Rabusa said his group was able to do this because of excess funds arising from the fact that the
military had submitted a higher “troop ceiling” than the actual AFP strength on the ground to
the Department of Budget and Management for the annual budget.

Sen. Franklin Drilon, chair of the committee on ways and means, said that the budget was
released to the military based on the troop ceiling, not on the number of troops in the field.

Through a slide presentation, Rabusa presented documents that he himself had signed as budget
officer converting ISAFP’s PS funds into the slush fund.

PS means conversion

“If you see the term personnel services, automatic, that’s conversion,” Rabusa said, pointing to
items in the documents.

Hearing this, Guingona told Lt. Gen. Reynaldo Mapagu, the current AFP vice chief of staff:
“That is something that we should look into, as we see it’s a source of conversion for
corruption.”

Common practice
The practice of conversion had apparently become so common that even then Gen. Efren Abu
had asked Rabusa to convert PS funds for the operating expenses of Abu’s office, J3, which he
then headed.

“He asked for my help to free up the MOOE so he can use this to be released to operating
units... I told him our only source is the PS for soldiers,” Rabusa said.

He said that auditor Divina Cabrera and by extension her immediate boss, then Commissioner
Raul Flores of the Commission on Audit, were aware of the conversion of ISAFP funds for the
slush fund.

“Our auditor was aware of this,” Rabusa said.

But Cabrera, who was detailed with the ISAFP for 13 years until 2005, denied Rabusa’s
allegation.

To refresh Cabrera’s memory, Rabusa said that if the budget office had converted P50 million,
it would have to release a P5-million additional allotment.

Two percent of the P5 million or P100,000 was given to Cabrera. “She even asked for an
increase, from 1 percent to 2 percent,” he said. Cabrera again denied this.

Special Prosecutor Wendell Sulit said she and the other prosecutors would consult one another
on what course of action to take on what Guingona described as “strong accusations” against
Cabrera.

“I deny all the accusations given by Rabusa. I know that I did my job as auditor of the COA. I
based all my audit work on the rules and regulations prescribed by the COA,” Cabrera said.

Rabusa also said that Cabrera introduced him to her “handler,” Raul Flores, whom he met at
Steaktown on West Avenue in Quezon City and SM Megamall in Mandaluyong City.

He said he handed Flores an envelope containing P200,000 each time they met. He said they
met at least three times.

Rabusa and Cabrera are close friends.

Cabrera said she did not ask for a reassignment from ISAFP because she only audited simple
transactions covering post-audit liquidations. Auditors are assigned to agencies for three years.

In the 13 years that she was assigned to ISAFP, she said the agency’s certifications on the
liquidation of intelligence funds were “in order.” But the COA issued suspension orders “if we
find discrepancies,” she said.

“I have heard of it,” she said when asked if she knew about the practice of conversion.

Loyola Grand Villas

Cabrera, however, said that she did not find any irregularity in the liquidation of ISAFP funds
because she audited only documents that were submitted to her.

Under grilling by Drilon, Cabrera admitted to owning a P2.5-million house on a 600-sq-m

property at the posh Loyola Grand Villas subdivision in Quezon City. She had the house built
in 1992.

Drilon then remarked: “If the COA is listening now, they may want to review the assignment of
Mrs. Cabrera to the Philippine Navy. Because she has been in ISAFP for 13 years. Now she’s
back again in the Philippine Navy, still with the AFP. I think prudence dictates that at this point
when all these revelations are being made in this hearing I call on the COA to recall and
reassign Ms Cabrera immediately.”
Rabusa reiterated that he and Garcia had “converted” almost P1 billion in 2002, and this
amount went to ISAFP and J7.

Asked if the release of portions of P1 billion for ISAFP, which has 1,000 personnel and 32
people, including attachés, posted abroad, did not raise alarm bells, Cabrera said allocations for
PS were processed in the general headquarters, and only allocations for the PS of defense
attachés were released to the ISAFP.

Oversight

In the wake of Rabusa’s exposé, seven congressmen composing the militant bloc in the House
of Representatives Monday filed a bill mandating the oversight and audit of billions of pesos in
government intelligence and confidential funds.

Representatives Teodoro Casiño and Neri Javier Colmenares of Bayan Muna, Luzviminda
Ilagan and Emerenciana de Jesus of Gabriela, Rafael Mariano of Anakpawis, Antonio Tinio of
ACT Teachers, and Raymond Palatino of Kabataan filed House Bill No. 4127 or the proposed
Intelligence and Confidential Funds Transparency Act of 2011. With a report from Cynthia D.
Balana