Garcia’s P128M now ‘beyond reach’

MANILA, Philippines—An estimated P128 million that was withdrawn by ex-military comptroller Carlos Garcia’s family from the bank accounts cited in their plunder case is now “beyond reach,” Special Prosecutor Wendell Sulit said Tuesday.

Sulit told reporters that the money was withdrawn before the bank accounts were frozen. “How will you freeze air?” she said, adding that it was Garcia’s wife Clarita and their children who had withdrawn the money, and that there was no admission from Garcia that it was given to him.

Asked why the return of the money was not made a condition in the plea bargain with Garcia, Sulit said it was feared that the retired major general would play hardball and that the government might end up losing the case.

“If we will haggle and tell him, ‘We won’t agree if you will not return that,’ we will both take a hardline stance. The plunder case will continue. Before you know it, he will be acquitted and we will end up with nothing,” she said.

Sulit expressed the prosecutors’ belief that the plea bargain with Garcia was the best option to take because they had insufficient evidence to take him down for plunder.

She said this was because the testimonies of the suppliers and contractors who supposedly colluded with Garcia did not materialize, as had been promised by then Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo who filed the plunder case.

Asked to comment, Marcelo denied having promised to present the contractors. He said he believed that Clarita Garcia’s written admission to US authorities that her husband had received money from military suppliers was enough to secure a conviction.

Full story from the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

All I can say is, bwahahahahaha..... were you expecting a different outcome?