SENATOR KIKO PANGILINAN'S STATEMENT ON COMPTROLLER
GARCIA'S PLEA BARGAIN: WHAT A MOCKERY!

On February 25, 2010, on the day we were supposed to be celebrating the anniversary of People Power, another midnight deal was being hatched by the office of the Ombudsman, government prosecutors (under the Arroyo regime), and the camp of comptroller Carlos Garcia for a plea bargain that would allow the plunderer to take home half of what he stole from the public coffers.

And, as former Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo has pointed out, there's another court handling Garcia's case that has ordered the forfeiture of P175M in assets of the former general and that this would be nullified with the precedence of the plea bargain. That is already a difference of P40M, and yet we know that Garcia took for himself at least P303M.

Garcia should not be allowed to go away scot-free and enjoy the rest of his loot. He should not be allowed to take home even a cent of what he stole. He should rot in jail and serve as an example to all would-be plunderers. That would be a good example of a bad deed getting punished instead of setting a bad example of a court not doing its mandate.

Letting Garcia escape with this is a real mockery of our system and our laws--with the robber literally laughing his way to the bank! This is a mockery of the very ideals we fought for in EDSA!