After serving sentence, ex-AFP comptroller Carlos Garcia wants to stay on at Bilibid

Published August 6, 2013 4:40pm

Even after serving out his two-year sentence for violations of the Articles of War, discharged Major Gen. Carlos Garcia, former comptroller of the Armed Force of the Philippines, asked the Sandiganbayan to be allowed to stay on at the National Bilibid Prisons (NBP).

In a two-page handwritten letter on August 2 this year, Garcia asked the Sandiganbayan's Special Second Division to let him stay at the NBP instead of being transferred to a different holding facility when his jail term ends on September 15 this year.

“(M)ay I respectfully request from the Honorable Justices that in the event of release, that I be committed and to continue my detention here at the NBP,” Garcia wrote.

He said after becoming an NBP inmate, he became involved in implementing the Reformation and Safeguarding Programs of the Bureau of Corrections.

He has also become a lay minister at the Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel inside the prison facility.

“I assist the Bureau chaplain in rendering religious and spiritual services to my fellow detainees. Also, it gave me the opportunity to attend church services daily,” he added.

Garcia said he found constructive use for his time serving as “adviser/mentor” to the Inmate-Auxiliary Organizations inside the Maximum Security Compound.

He said he assists the NBP Custodial Unit "in the preservation and maintenance of peace and order in the compound.”

Garcia wrote the Sandiganbayan which had directed the NBP not to release him as it had recalled its December 16, 2010 resolution that allowed him to post bail of P60,000.

The Sandiganbayan also ordered the NBP to issue a 15-day notice when the defendant is due for release so it can issue a new commitment order.

The defendant was earlier allowed to post bail after he entering into a plea bargaining agreement with the Office of the Ombudsman that reduced his cases to direct bribery and facilitating money laundering instead of plunder and money laundering.

Garcia admitted guilt on the lesser charges and surrendered P150 million worth of cash, motor vehicles, and real estate assets. - VVP, GMA News

Tags: carlosgarcia, armedforcesofthephilippines