Former Marine commandant Major General Renato Miranda and 4 others are accused of pocketing over P36 million in clothing and equipment allowances of Marine personnel in 2000
ROBBED? Some members of the Philippine Marine Corps reportedly failed to get their clothing and equipment allowance in CY 1999. File photo by Dennis Sabangan/EPA
Five former officers of the Philippine Marine Corps (PMC) led by former commandant Major General Renato Miranda face graft and malversation charges for allegedly pocketing P36.77 million in funds allotted for Marine personnel in 2000.
Criminal charges were filed on March 10 before the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan against Miranda, Lieutenant Colonel Jeson P. Cabatbat, Major Adelo B. Jandayan, and Captains Felicisimo C. Millado and Edmundo Yurong.
Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales approved the indictments against the military officers based on the criminal information drafted by Assistant Special Prosecutor 3 Anna Isabel G. Aurellano, and recommended by Maria Janina Justo Hidalgo.
According to the Ombudsman's resolution, P36,768,028.95 was released in 1999 for Combat Clothing and Individual Equipment (CCIE) allowances of PMC personnel in the field, who were each supposed to receive P14,715.05.
The investigation showed that 19 checks were issued to cover the entire amount, released as cash advances to Millado who was then disbursing officer. Millado reportedly entrusted the amount to Jandayan “with the approval of Miranda."
The Ombudsman said Millado, Jandayan, Cabatbat, and Yurong prepared the payroll and supporting documents submitted for liquidation.
The investigators discovered that the signatures on the payroll were forgeries while the supporting documents were falsified, after randomly-selected PMC enlisted personnel who were interviewed by auditors admitted that they never received their CCIE allowances.
The payroll also showed signatures of supposed authorized representatives of some PMC personnel but the intended recipients said that they never authorized anybody to receive said allowances on their behalf.
“(Defendants) made it appear…that said marine soldiers indeed received their CCIE, when in fact they did not; thereby causing undue injury to the said marine soldiers and the government,” the prosecution said.
The prosecutors recommended a P30,0000-bail bond for each of the accused but asked the court to hold them without bail for the malversation charge.
http://www.rappler.com/nation/86840-ombudsman-charges-marines-graft
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