Carlos Garcia, ex-AFP comptroller, freed from Bilibid

Retired Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia has been released from the New Bilibid Prison after serving time and earning good conduct time allowance credits, the Bureau of Corrections has said.

Citing records, the BuCor said Garcia was sentenced to a prison term of 18 years and four months. The bureau said the time he has served in prison, and the GCTA credits he earned have already exceeded his sentence.

The former Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) comptroller was committed to the  NBP on September 16, 2011  but his actual detention started in June 2005. He has actually served 17 years five months and eight days in prison.

Justice Secretary Crispin Remulla approved Garcia's release whose sentence has been fully served following the computation of 3,288 GCTA credits under Republic Act No. 10592.

BuCor director general Gregorio Catapang Jr. carried out the order for Garcia's release. He said there were no more legal grounds for Garcia to be further detained at the NBP.

RA 10592, among others, provides for the deduction of days from a convict's sentence due to good behavior over time.

In July 2022, the Sandiganbayan Second Division sentenced Garcia to a maximum of 14 years' imprisonment — four  to eight years for direct bribery, and four to six years for facilitating money laundering.

He was also ordered to pay a total fine of P407.8 million: P406.3 million for direct bribery and P1.5 million for facilitating money laundering.

In 2005 and 2009, Garcia was charged with plunder and money laundering for conniving and conspiring with co-accused members of his family, amassing P303.2 million worth of ill-gotten wealth in the form of funds, landholdings, and other real and personal properties.

The retired general had pleaded guilty to the lesser offenses of direct bribery and facilitating money laundering following a plea bargain agreement with the Office of the Ombudsman.

Under the plea bargain deal filed with the Sandiganbayan in March 2010, Garcia offered to pay the government P135.4 million worth of cash, real and personal properties.

The Office of the Solicitor General at that time questioned the agreement through a petition before the Supreme Court, which dismissed it in September 2020. The dismissal became final and executory in July 2021.

Garcia had been also sentenced for a minimum of one year and eight months to maximum of two years and four months for perjury by the anti-graft’s  court.

The General Court Martial of the AFP also sentenced him to a maximum of two years for violation of the 96th and 97th Article of War.

Garcia, his wife Clarita, and children Ian Carl, Juan Paulo, and Timothy Mark were originally charged with plunder in April 2005 and money laundering in November 2009.

The cases against his wife and children have been archived and will be revived upon their arrest or surrender. —with a report from GMA Integrated News Research/NB/KG, GMA Integrated News