Ghost busting

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

The House of Representatives will try to flush out the “ghost” soldiers that former Armed Forces of the Philippines budget officer George Rabusa says make up at least 20 percent of the personnel in the military. Flushing out these ghost soldiers is an urgent matter because Rabusa alleges that the funds for these unfilled positions are “converted” into cash and shared by high-ranking AFP officers who  used  it in the tradition of giving sendoff or welcoming gifts for outgoing and incoming chiefs of staff.

Cebu City Rep. Tomas Osmeña, who heads an appropriations committee, said he will  recommend certain safeguards in the budget to make sure that billions in funds for salaries are received only by “warm bodies” in the military and not pocketed by corrupt officers and civilian personnel. One such provision would be to require all soldiers to register themselves as voters through the biometrics system of the Commission on Elections and requiring them  to present their voter’s ID before claiming their salaries. Some appropriations committee members are suggesting that those safeguards be applied to the Philippine National Police as well, which has almost the same payroll loopholes and staff size of the AFP.

It remains to be seen whether the AFP and the PNP will cooperate in such a measure, as the Commission on Audit has revealed that every time they ask for  a listing of soldiers from the AFP, they are told that the document is “classified and secret”. This convenient excuse means that the COA has no way of knowing whether the billions of pesos in funds for soldiers’ salaries are actually paid to warm bodies. If Congress can find a way to get the cooperation of the AFP and PNP to close those loopholes and purge the service of ghost soldiers and policemen,  while keeping respecting the confidentiality of the rolls, it could put an end to the unbelievable ease with which fund conversion has been practiced in our armed and defense forces.

This is one test of all those investigations that are conducted “in aid of legislation”. If the probe into the AFP fund conversion mess can result in laws or safeguards in the budget that can stop those corrupt practices, then maybe those probes are not just for grandstanding and media mileage after all.*