CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Feb. 11, 2011—The Iglesia Filipia Independiente (IFI) or Philippine Independent Church (PIC) yesterday threw its support to former state auditor Heidi Mendoza and retired Lt. Col. George Rabusa for courageously exposing the massive corruption in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
This, as a prominent Maranao leader of a Marawi City-based Civil Society Organization (CSO) said that Mendoza’s and Rabusa’s exposes are just the tip of the iceberg that may have originated in Malacanang during the previous Arroyo administration.
“We applaud Ms. Heidi Mendoza and retired Lt. Col. George Rabusa for demonstrating a courageous spirit in exposing to the world the massive corruption within the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). Their expose accentuates public criticism about the use of military aid, expensive military modernization programs, and well-oiled counterinsurgency campaigns principally as milking cows for AFP senior officials, at the expense of rank-and-file soldiers, the sons and daughters of the Filipino peasants and workers,” said IFI supreme bishop Most Reverend Godofredo J. David, D.D. in a statement entitled “Let us Courageously Stand for the Good of the Nation.”
David said that the exposes “highlights the systemic corruption not only within the military but also the civilian bureaucracy in the government.”
The expose exploded during a Senate hearing investigating the case of former AFP comptroller Major General Carlos Garcia. It so stirred the corridors of power that one of those implicated in the corruption, former AFP Chief-of-Staff Gen. Angelo Reyes committed suicide Tuesday.
Reyes’s death, David said, “should not interrupt the ongoing investigations and make those who are responsible answer for their crimes.”
“The unfortunate death of General Angelo Reyes amidst the ongoing investigation should compel President Benigno Aquino III to order the authorities to step up the investigation. His death, however regretful,
demonstrates that Mendoza and Rabusa tipped upon a Pandora’s Box, one which the AFP does not want to be opened and more so for the people to know,” he said.
David also urged the President to give Mendoza and Rabusa all the protection and support they needed so they can continue to testify without fear for their lives.
“He [President Aquino] must seriously pursue the investigations and ensure that those accountable for corruption in the AFP are placed behind bars,” he said, adding that “our children are worthy of a country where justice, peace and abundance are not merely part of political orations, rather, a social reality that serve as strong pillars of a sovereign nation.”
“The investigations in the Houses of Congress and Senate must be pursued in the interest of truth and justice,” he added.
Hadji Abdullah “Lax” Dalidig, chairman of the Islamic Movement for Electoral Reform and Good Government (IMERGG), also challenged Aquino to pursue the “AFP corruption” investigations to its just conclusion.
Dalidig said the AFP corruption exposes are just the tip of the iceberg in a whole corruption scheme that emanated from the halls of Malacanang.
“Si[former President and now Pampanga district representative] Gloria [Macapagal-Arroyo]mismo ang nakinabang sa lahat ng corruption at the expense of the Mindanaoans who are suffering from the decades-old conflict,” he said.
Dalidig also urged Aquino to pursue the “AFP corruption” investigation to its just conclusion for the sake of Mindanawons, who are continually suffering because of the decades-old conflict between the AFP and
the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF), armed wing of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
He reminded Aquino that the face of the AFP corruption is the conflict in Mindanao, hinting at the Oplan Greenbase, which the previous Arroyo administration had dismissed as fake.
Oplan Greenbase, first exposed by former renegade soldier-turned-Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, is allegedly Arroyo’s secret order to the military to attack the Buliok Complex, the headquarters of the MILF,
situated at the sprawling Liguasan Marsh in the provinces of Maguindanao and Cotabato, so it can be opened for commercial development purposes, specifically the planting of palm trees for the extraction of palm oil. (Bong D. Fabe)
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