Officer tagged by Rabusa to go on leave or quit

A retired military general who now works as the assistant secretary for comptrollership at the Department of National Defense (DND) said he planned either to resign or take a leave after he was named a respondent in a plunder complaint filed by the military whistle-blower, George Rabusa.

Retired Maj. Gen. Ernesto Boac, who chairs the bids and awards committee at the DND, said he would leave it to Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin to decide his fate.

However, because of the “very critical position” he holds, Boac said that “perhaps an indefinite leave of absence is the better option.”

“I believe that prudence dictates that I should not continue with my functions because of the very serious case filed against me and [the fact that] I’m holding a key position,” he told reporters yesterday.

Boac said the sensitivity of his position and the gravity of Rabusa’s accusations had prompted him to take such a course of action.

He denied amassing P330 million when he was budget officer of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Boac’s was among the five names that Rabusa—the ex-military budget officer who spilled the beans on alleged corruption among the military top brass—added to his amended plunder complaint with the Department of Justice.

In the complaint, Rabusa said Boac received more than P330 million when he was budget officer of the defunct J6 (the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Comptrollership).

Boac said he did serve in J6 from 1986 to 1992 but could not answer in detail the specifics of Rabusa’s charges. He said the whistle-blower was someone he knew personally and had worked with in the past.

Boac retired in February 2008 as commander of the Army’s 10th Infantry Division in Mindanao. He was appointed assistant secretary at the DND six months later.

Defense Undersecretary and spokesperson Eduardo Batac described Boac as “a very professional person.”

“He has been doing his duties by the book. He enjoys the trust and confidence of the secretary (Gazmin). He’s one of the old hands at the DND who was retained by the secretary,” he said.

Because of the nature of the charges against Boac, Batac said there would be “specific administrative responses … just so there’s no question about the [defense] department coddling its own people.”

Batac, however, lamented that Boac had not even been informed of the charges and already the accusations were being publicized.