Senate releases general linked to military fund scam

MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATE 2) General Jacinto Ligot has been released by the Senate after spending a weekend under the custody of the upper chamber following his arrest for feigning illness during an investigation into alleged fund irregularities in the military last week.

“General Ligot has answered our questions to which he previously invoked his right to self-incrimination,” Senator Teofisto Guingona III, chairman of the blue ribbon committee that has been presiding over the hearings, said in Filipino.

Guingona told Ligot shortly before the hearing was adjourned that the general would be allowed to leave on the condition that he would continue to cooperate in the committee’s investigation into the anomalies.

Earlier in the investigation, senators grilled Ligot’s wife, Erlinda, on hundreds of thousands of dollars she had allegedly invested in bonds from 2000 onwards from her husband Jacinto Ligot’s dollar accounts in Citibank and spent on their foreign trips.

The Ligots, however, denied knowledge of such investments.

When pressed if they were willing to waive their right to the investments in favor of the government, Erlinda said she preferred to examine the documents to determine if the investments were in her name.

Senator Franklin Drilon said the documents obtained from a local court would be photocopied.

Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada grilled Mrs. Ligot, especially on her trips to the US where she was said to have purchased property.

Estrada also presented retired Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Mateo, a former budget officer of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, who said that former Lieutenant Colonel George Rabusa was telling the truth about the alleged conversion of military funds.

Mateo said that for the P10 million he would give Rabusa monthly, they would be given P1.1 million to be distributed to the chief accountant (two percent); commanding officer of the finance center (one percent); general headquarters auditor from the Commission on Audit (one percent); Office of J7 (three percent); budget officer (1.5 percent); and CMO activities (one percent).

“Once J6 [deputy chief of staff for comptrollership] releases allotment advice, we turn that into money [at J7, or the deputy chief of staff for civil military operations] and we return the money, and it’s up to them to distribute the money,” Mateo told the Senate blue ribbon committee.

Mateo served as budget officer in J7. He retired in 2007.