3 active AFP officers may be relieved pending Ombudsman’s decision on DOJ resolution

MANILA, Philippines- The three active officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) included in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) resolution recommending the filing of plunder charges could be relieved if the Ombudsman files charges, an AFP spokesman said Friday.

“As a matter of policy, whenever there are … cases involving our personnel, they will be made available to answer those charges [which] means if [they] are occupying a sensitive key position, [they] will be relieved from that key position,” AFP spokesman Colonel Arnulfo Burgos said in a press conference.

The three active officers are Brigadier General Benito De Leon, Assistant Commandant of the AFP Command and General Staff College (AFPCGSC), Colonel Roy Devesa, also assigned in the AFPCGSC, and Colonel Cirilo Tomas Donato, currently assigned as the Philippines defense attaché in East Timor, Burgos said.

Colonel Donato is certain to be recalled from East Timor so that he can answer the charges should they be filed by the Ombudsman.

De Leon and Devesa are just in the AFPCGSC in Camp Aguinaldo, Burgos said.

The AFP will provide legal assistance to them since they are in active duty, he said.

“We fully trust our justice system [and] we honor and respect whatever the findings in the resolution of the investigating panel of the DOJ,” Burgos said.

Included in the DOJ’s resolution are the names of former AFP Chiefs of Staff Diomedio Villanueva and Roy Cimatu as well as former AFP comptrollers Carlos Garcia and Jacinto Ligot, Major General Hilario Atendido, Lieutenant Colonel Ernesto Paranis, Generoso Del Castillo and Divina Cabrera.