Bill to create civilian office for AFP funds revived

A House bill seeking the creation of a civilian office to handle funds of the Armed Forces of the Philippines was revived in Congress on Tuesday, weeks after alleged anomalous transactions in the military were bared in congressional probes. On Tuesday, Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez refiled a measure seeking to transfer the duties of four military offices earlier created to replace the AFP’s deputy chief of staff for comptrollership to a civilian office called the Office of the Comptroller of the AFP. “The mere fact that the chief comptroller is a civilian [can] provide the necessary checks and balance in the handling of AFP funds," Golez said in the House bill, which has yet to be numbered. A similar measure, House Bill 3370, was filed in 2004 and reached third and final reading during the 13th Congress, but was not enacted into law, according to Golez. Also in 2004, the AFP abolished the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Comptrollership (J-6), and replaced it with four smaller bureaus, namely: the AFP Resource Management Office, the Office of the Internal Audit, Management and Fiscal Office, and the AFP Accounting Office. Golez refiled the measure a week after the House justice committee terminated its congressional inquiries on the controversial plea bargain deal entered into by the Office of the Ombudsman and former military comptroller Carlos Garcia. During the hearings, former state auditor Heidi Mendoza revealed that Garcia authorized supposedly anomalous transfers of military funds, including P200 million diverted from the Armed Forces’ Land Bank account in San Juan City to a questionable bank account in Makati City. Civilian chief comptroller Under the new measure, the Office of the AFP Comptroller, which will be directly supervised by the military chief, shall be in charge of determining the budgetary requirements of the AFP and shall supervise financial operations of the military. The chief comptroller must be a certified public accountant with a master’s degree on public administration or business administration, and shall be appointed by the President, according to the proposed legislation. Golez said that a civilian chief comptroller for the AFP will be able to function “more efficiently, effectively and independently" in budgeting, accounting and auditing all the military’s affairs and transactions. Likewise, Golez said, "the men and women of the military will also be able to focus more on military duties and on strengthening the national defense." The revived bill will still have to go through usual process of sponsorship at the plenary, committee hearings and a period of debates and amendments before it can be enacted into law. — LBG/RSJ, GMA News