AFP spokesman: ‘Pabaon’ practice discontinued in 2004

The military on Thursday admitted the practice of giving millions of pesos of “pabaon" (send-off money) to retiring chiefs of staff, but said the illegal practice is no longer being observed. “It doesn’t happen anymore because of the innovations that were done, that were undertaken after the General Garcia case came out in the open," said Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesman Brig. Gen. Jose Mabanta. Garcia, a former AFP comptroller facing a plunder case before an anti-graft court, is accused of amassing over P300 million in ill-gotten wealth while he was in active service. Mabanta said the practice stopped with the abolition of the office of the AFP deputy chief of staff for comptrollership (J6) in 2004 following the Garcia scandal. J6 was replaced by the office of the AFP Resource Management Office, office of the AFP Management and Fiscals Office, and the office of the AFP Internal Auditor. “A lot of things have happened to the comptroller. From a very big office, it was divided into smaller offices. One of the intentions of this is to show there is check and balance, not one office will decide on the financial issues," said Mabanta. Mabanta made the statement after former Lt. Col. George Rabusa, a former military budget officer, accused former AFP chief Angelo Reyes in a Senate hearing of receiving P50 million of send-off money upon his retirement from the military. Mabanta said the statement of Rabusa, his classmate at the Philippine Military Academy class 1981, were based on raw information. “It’s up to him, anyone can say what he wants, but these are raw information which I think needs to be further verified. It’s really up to the authorities to find out its veracity and truthfulness," he said. A source within the military, however, said the “pabaon" system still persists, only that it became “decentralized" with the abolition of J6. “It’s still there. They have the cash that is difficult to trace. That is where they got the pabaon. These are from the proceeds of conversion. Before the Garcia case, conversion was centralized, but now, it’s already decentralized," he said. He said the corruption in the military now occurs through the “conversion system." “If you order P10 million worth of medicine, the supplier will deliver only P5 million worth and the other P5 million will be in the form of cash, but he (supplier) will sign the delivery receipt for P10 million," the military official said in explaining the conversion system. “In some cases, there are no deliveries or ghost delivery," he added. - KBK, GMANews.TV