MANILA, 10 March 2006 — Malacañang Palace yesterday said the impending imprisonment of the wife and three young sons of disgraced Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia’s for plunder should serve as a warning to public officials.
Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye issued the statement a day after the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court ordered the arrest Garcia’s wife Clarita Depakakibo-Garcia and sons Ian Carl, Juan Paulo and Timothy Mark in connection with the 303.27-million-peso plunder case filed by the Office of the Ombudsman.
“This landmark decision proves that no one is above the law and the fight against corruption under the Arroyo administration is relentless,” Bunye said in a press statement.
Associate Justice Edilberto Sandoval, chairman of the Sandiganbayan Second Division, issued the warrants of arrest on Wednesday.
Garcia was the principal accused in the plunder case while his wife and sons were held liable for helping him conceal his alleged ill-gotten wealth.
A military court sentenced Garcia in December to two years of hard labor over charges of massive corruption and illegal acquisition of millions of pesos while handling the military’s budget.
The arrest order came after the court upheld the Ombudsman’s finding of probable cause to prosecute the Garcias on a charge of conspiracy to amass ill-gotten wealth from 1993 to 2004, or from the time Garcia was an army colonel until he became AFP deputy chief of staff for comptrollership.
The charge sheet described Garcia’s wife and children as his “conduits and willing receptacles.”
Garcia is the first high ranking military official found guilty of plunder.
His troubles began in late 2004 when US Customs officials caught his young sons bringing in huge amounts of dollars into the United States. Garcia’s wife reportedly admitted to US authorities that the money came from kickbacks from military suppliers in the Philippines
One of Garcia’s military aides, a colonel, had also been charged in court for illegally amassing wealth.
