Update: April 10, 2008

General Garcia was acquitted for perjury concersing his SALN (Statement of Assets and Liabilities). Great for him, but what about us citizens?

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On Dec. 19, 2003, US Customs officials apprehended the son of Maj. Gen. Carlos F. Garcia at the San Francisco airport. He was carrying US$100,000 in undeclared cash.

The military leadership got wind of the incident as early as January 2004. Instead of investigating Garcia, however, then Armed Forces Chief of Staff Narciso Abaya merely asked him to explain and transferred him to another position.  This went on until, on September 14, US Customs and the Federal Bureau of Investigation transmitted to the office of then Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo a list of the amounts that General Garcia had brought into the US. A report published in NEWSBREAK in October 2004 estimated that Garcia must have taken P71 million to the US from 1993 to 2003.

The Garcia case triggered more investigations into the unexplained wealth of military generals, particularly those belonging to the so-called “comptroller family.” In late 2004, NEWSBREAK published a report on the unexplained wealth of another former comptroller, Jacinto Ligot, who was found to have properties in California, a posh condominium, and farmhouses in Bukidnon.

In October 2004, the Judge Advocate General’s office charged Garcia with violating Articles of War 95 (conduct unbecoming of an officer and gentleman) and 96 (acts prejudicial to good order and military discipline) for failing to declare all his assets in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth and for possessing a US green card. In April 2006, the military court sentenced Garcia to a two-year confinement without pay and allowance and dishonorable discharge.

The Ombudsman also filed forfeiture cases against the two generals before the Sandiganbayan. On top of this, Garcia faces graft charges in the same court. No graft charges were filed against Ligot. His assets, however, have been indefinitely frozen by the Anti-Money Laundering Council since they were not declared in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth.