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Monday, May 08, 2006
General in Garci tapes given post in task force
MANILA -- Malacañang has reportedly appointed one of the four generals mentioned in the controversial "Hello Garci" tapes as an undersecretary of the recently created National Anti-Environmental Crime Task Force.
A source from the environment department said retired Philippine Army lieutenant general Roy Kyamko has been serving as the task force's executive director for the past weeks already.
Kyamko's appointment came weeks after he and other so-called "Hello Garci" generals were cleared by a military fact-finding board of any wrongdoing in the May 2004 elections.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo created the task force last March and designated retired general and Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes to head it.
Tasks
The task force operates under the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission and is composed of a composite team from law enforcement and related agencies.
Its operation is funded by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Among the task force's tasks are: conducting intelligence and counter-intelligence operations to identify those involved in environmental crime and monitoring and following up ongoing investigation and prosecution of cases.
Kyamko, a known protégée of Reyes, retired from the military service as Southern Command chief in late 2004. After his retirement, he was named executive director of an anti-smuggling task force then headed by Reyes.
The task force was abolished two months ago and its functions were delegated to the Bureau of Customs.
Cleared
Kyamko and three other military generals were investigated by a fact-finding board headed by Vice Admiral Mateo Mayuga in July last year after their names were mentioned in the "Hello Garci" tapes.
Last month, the board released its findings, clearing Kyamko, Army Chief Hermogenes Esperon, Southcom Chief Gabriel Habacon and former First Marine Brigade commander Francisco Gudani of any unprofessional conduct in the elections. The board said not a single witness testified against the four generals.
The tapes, said to have been wiretapped conversations of President Arroyo and former Commission on Elections commissioner, allegedly implicated Kyamko, Esperon and Habacon in poll cheating. Gudani was described in the tapes as having supported one of Arroyo's political opponents.
Gudani is being investigated by the military for testifying before the Senate in August last year despite being instructed not to do so. During his testimony, he claimed to have witnessed rigging during the last elections.
Former Philippine Constabulary chief Ramon Montano, one of the many retired military and police generals calling for the President's resignation, said he was not surprised by Kyamko's appointment. He said it was the government's habit to promote people who helped it.
Habacon, who was the commander of the Joint Task Force Comet based in Sulu during elections, was named Southcom commander last January. He is due to retire in this September.
Esperon, the concurrent AFP deputy chief of staff for operations and deputy commander of the military's Honest Orderly and Peaceful Elections (Hope) in the 2004 elections, was appointed by the President as Army chief in August last year. (VR/Sunnex)
(May 8, 2006 issue)
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