AFP: 91 graft charges vs RSBS officials filed

The Armed Forces said on Friday that at least 91 graft charges have been filed against several Retirement and Separation Benefits System (RSBS) officials and employees, noting this was an indication that it was serious in ridding the military pension fund of corruption. "Based on documents that we have now, 91 cases are filed and pending before the Sandiganbayan," said Lieutenant Colonel Bartolome Bacarro, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) public information office chief. "This would just show that indeed there have been efforts to really determine the culpability and identify persons who are parties, who have had hands in these anomalies," he added. Bacarro furnished reporters with a list of some of the pending cases at the anti-graft court, among which identified former RSBS president Jose Ramiscal as one of the respondents. He could not say how much money was involved in the cases, which are mostly due to mismanagement of the investment fund. Told that some of the cases have been pending before the anti-graft court for the past several years, Bacarro said: "I am not privy to the merits of the case, it’s beyond us. We have submitted it already to Sandiganbayan." The military leadership has also embarked on a roadshow of military camps to explain to troops why the RSBS is being abolished. Bankrupt Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz earlier in the week assured that the soldiers do not have to worry, assuring that they would receive their retirement pay and pension upon retirement. "The RSBS is a hopeless case. It’s bankrupt," Cruz told reporters. "But there is no reason to panic…the soldiers’ contributions will be returned to them upon their retirement." The RSBS assets, valued at least P11.6 billion, would be transferred to government financial institutions like the Land Bank of the Philippines and Development Bank of the Philippines, to ensure that they are well managed. About P9.6 billion of the total assets of the NDCC are invested directly in real estate and realty-related equity investments while the rest are in the form of cash or invested in stocks, according to Cruz. The defense department plans to create another system that would cater to the retirement and pension benefits of new recruits. A DND-AFP committee is due to submit a bill before the Congress to pave the way for the establishment of the new system. Frustration over controversy For his part, RSBS executive vice president Jose Nano on Friday downplayed perceptions that the RSBS has gone bankrupt. The RSBS pegged a P14 million profit last year, over a hundred million pesos less than the past years two years. He noted that the RSBS settled over the past five years the P5 billion the RSBS loaned from various banks by previous officials to acquire real estate. Nano presided over a meeting aimed at informing the RSBS rank and file how they would be compensated by the government upon the agency’s abolition. The employees would be receiving benefits due them under the law. Another official, RSBS vice president for corporate planning Lorna Lanoza, expressed frustration over how the pension fund was being blamed for the controversy when they were the ones who made public the problems and subsequently proposed its rehabilitation. Lanoza said they disclosed the problems before the Senate blue ribbon committee that conducted an inquiry on the RSBS and before the Feliciano commission that investigated the 2003 Oakwood mutiny. Both bodies recommended the abolition of the RSBS. ’Something went wrong’ Meanwhile, former AFP chief Gen. Lisandro Abadia, who is under investigation by the Ombudsman for mismanagement of the RSBS, justified RSBS’ decision to venture into the real estate business in the early 1990s. Abadia said the RSBS posted P1.5 billion in profit from 1991 to 1994 "because of the boom in the real estate." He said the RSBS board of trustees, which he chaired as the AFP chief, later decided to resort to borrowings to buy more land. When the 1997 Asian financial crisis struck, the RSBS began incurring losses. "I cant blame the Board of Trustees at that time. It was a corporate decision," said Abadia, explaining the decision to invest heavily in the real estate industry. "But something went wrong somehow," said Abadia, referring to the financial crisis. "I am the high-profile scapegoat." He also supported Sen. Rodolfo Biazon’s statement that the abolition of the RSBS might be illegal. "RSBS was created by law. Senator Biazon is right, a law should abolish it…The decision (to abolish RSBS) came out so suddenly," he said. -GMANews.TV