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Friday, October 22, 2004
Garcia P52M bank deposits frozen
MANILA -- A little slow on the draw, government ended up freezing a mere P52 million in the known bank accounts of Major General Carlos Garcia and his family.
Solicitor General Alfredo Benipayo announced this development Thursday, rejecting reports that the former military comptroller was able to close all his accounts before the Court of Appeals issued the freeze order on his and his family's deposits.
A document released by Benipayo to the media showed that as of October 15, a total of P52,510,980 of the accounts of the Garcia family in five institutions were frozen.
"The report that General Garcia managed to close all his bank accounts before the freeze order came out is wrong. This document proves it," he said.
Benipayo said the document, entitled "Summary of Amounts Frozen", was furnished to his office by the appellate court.
The document, however, did not provide the specific identity of the banks or financial institutions where Garcia's accounts were frozen.
"It would be imprudent for us to disclose such information," Benipayo explained.
The summary of frozen accounts merely designated the covered institutions as "A,B,C, D, and E." The "A" column indicates that $53,779.20 and P50,224.56 were the amounts frozen. In "B", it was $0.69 and P2,725; in "C", $674,286.43 and P6,661,451.19; in "D" P8,721.66; and in E, P4,736,180.31.
The dollar accounts frozen totalled $728,066.32 while the peso accounts summed up to P11,439,302.81.
At a conversion rate of P56.412 per dollar, the amounts frozen total P52,510,980.05.
Benipayo said the P52 million is "small."
"There should be more," he said.
Garcia's wife Clarita and her three sons have six separate accounts at Planters, all of them in foreign currency.
The Garcias have also at least three real estate properties in the United States, one at 222 East 34th Street, Apt. 2202 in New York, valued at $750,000 a unit at Trump Park Avenue Condominium, 502 Park Avenue, also in New York, valued at $765,000 and another property at 625 Vancouver Drive, Westerville, Ohio.
President Arroyo's spokesman Ignacio Bunye reiterated government's commitment to track down all paper trail and pieces of evidence to eventually build an airtight case against Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia.
Bunye said no one should doubt the political will of the Arroyo administration in cleaning up government of grafters.
"There is no such thing as a perfect crime in these matters and the paper trail will be meticulously investigated. Nobody should even doubt the political will of the administration to bring grafters to justice and to redeem what has been stolen from the public coffers," he said. (Benjamin B. Pulta/JMR)
(October 22, 2004 issue)
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