By Dante A. Ang

Here’s a window for P-Noy to demonstrate his resolve to rid our country of wrongdoers and corrupt individuals. Three cases involving the former Pagcor chairman for misappropriating government funds for his personal use that were unearthed recently are too glaring to be swept under the rug. I am talking here of the rice donated by a putative Japanese client of Pagcor to the Typhoon Ondoy victims. At issue is whether or not the rice donations were misappropriated by Pagcor Chairman Eph-raim Genuino for the campaign of his children in the May 10 elections. Genuino, in his earlier statement, claimed ownership of the rice, and that he donated them to Pagcor; ergo, he could not have misused it. In his subsequent statement, he said something like, “People interchange Pagcor with Genuino and vice versa.” He added that the Japanese investor is a good friend of his.

When I was campaigning for the Party-list Ahon Pinoy during the last elections, stories abound that voters in Los Baños were gifted with a regular supply of rice, apples and oranges. Every week, they were treated to an extravaganza with movie stars regaling the crowd.

In my campaign sorties in Los Baños, I would ask my audience in jest, “Sino dito sa inyo ang nabiyayaan ng mansanas at orange? Taas ang kamay.” Many of them raised their arms in hesitation as if feeling embarrassed and showing remorse. I would follow up my question with a soothing and calming reassurance that I fully understood them and that they should accept the rice, apples and oranges from the politicians without shame or guilt. A deafening applause followed everytime I said, “Pera ng bayan, isauli sa mamamayan.”

I have been to a few places in the country while campaigning for Ahon Pinoy. I haven’t seen anything that resembles Genuino’s give-aways in Los Baños during his son’s campaign for the mayoralty post. Rice, yes; but imported apples and oranges? These are unusual freebies for a local candidate to be distributing to voters.

Which brings me to my questions: “Where did those apples and oranges come from? Did Genuino buy the give-aways at a hefty discount from some Pagcor suppliers? Were the oranges and apples donated to his sons [the other Genuino son also ran in Makati for mayor, and lost] by his casino-business friends?”

What about Pagcor’s donations to Genuino’s own party-list, Bida, that had his daughter as its first nominee? If this is not a clear violation of the anti-graft law, I do not know what is.And what about those Bida commercials on television, radio and print? If I recall, those ads boasted about the millions who had attended the rally in Luneta against illegal drugs and having presumably broken the Guinness world record for mass attendance.

Pagcor sponsored the event and paid for the costs of advertising. I still remember that the radio commercial had a tagline with Genuino asking, “Bida ka ba? O di, sali na.”More, what’s the status of the P26 million worth of hamburgers and value meals purchased by Pagcor for the police officers from McDonald? Is the present Pagcor leadership looking into it?

I spoke briefly to a PNP senior superintendent in charge of the police contingents during the rallies held near the US Embassy and in Mendiola. He confirmed that Pagcor did indeed supply the law enforcers with hamburgers and value meals from the famous fastfood chain.He said that there were occasions when there were two or three rallies a day. The police, he added, needed the food brought to them so they would not have to leave their posts and create gaps in their ranks.

In all, he estimated that the hamburgers and the value meals must have covered a period of a little over three months for some 150 policemen every rally.

I’m not a math genius but even if the police were fed three times a day for three months, the expenses would not even come close to P26 million. Assume that the cost of a value meal is P150 multiply that by the number of policemen which was 150 per rally, multiply again by three meals a day, and once more by 90, the number of rally days (assuming of course that the rallies were held 90 days straight, including Sundays, which is ridiculous), the expenses would only amount to P2,025,000, not P26 million! So whose pockets got richer by P24 million?

I chanced upon a former Pag-cor official one weekend and our conversation veered towards the past Pagcor officials’ alleged graft practices. I asked him why there are no charges being filed against former Pagcor officials given what a lot of people say were naked violations of the Anti-Corrupt Practices Law during their term?

He said that the new Pagcor leadership is preparing to file charges against the former gambling officials and their cohorts. He explained that the documents are being gathered and organized to make sure the cases filed will be airtight. Let’s see.

So I guess it is but natural for a president to make appointments on the basis of loyalty and friendship. Like all other presidents before him, it is but natural for President Noynoy to rely on a team of friends and other people whose opinion and advice he values.

Some in PNoy’s cabinet, as the President has said so himself, are individuals who have left their comfortable and lucrative jobs in the corporate world to answer his call to contribute to the new administration and help the country.

The President’s appointments have been on the lips of many Filipinos and have been the subject of Facebook pages and barbershop talk. Many ordinary Filipinos don’t have a clue as to how the President came up with the names of his cabinet officials and agency heads, but are just curious and patriotic enough to discuss these appointments.

They are just concerned knowing how crucial choosing people are. The President is not expected to be hands-on in everything that goes on in his administration. As he himself said, he is not a micromanager. He cannot be expected to know all the time if all his appointed officials are doing good; if they are following his daang matuwid. This makes it all the more important for him to choose the right people for the right job. The President, I believe, made a blunder when he appointed Rico Puno as Undersecretary of the Interior department, with the specific task of taking charge of the police.

We are understandably edgy about the appointment of Puno because of his alleged involvement in jueteng (Bishop Oscar Cruz implicated him) and the Quirino hostage tragedy, and PNoy is not disappointing us at all by keeping Puno in his post, with utmost trust and confidence.Sure, we get it. PNoy values the virtue of loyalty. That is expected. It is expected that friends will defend friends. And Puno in every forum has not been shy in claiming his close friendship with the President. But if the President will appoint people like Puno based on friendship and loyalty alone, then he will have no need for enemies.

Of course, the President is entitled to make bad choices.As far as qualifications go, even if Puno was president of a company that sold guns to the police and the military, that doesn’t make him an expert in police and security matters. Puno may well claim to know the ins and outs of the police and the military, as any businessman who sells guns to them does, so if it were a matter of inside knowledge (I hope, not participation) of the kind of corruption the goes on in their officials’ ranks, then indeed, he may be an expert in those matters. But as far as actual law enforcement is concerned, as far as security strategies and so forth, he has shown zero competence.

The Quirino Grandstand hostage tragedy has shown he is not a competent administrator of the police and that the job is not even the right one for him. Why put this bumbling official in such a sensitive job where lives are at stake? As Senator Miguel Zubiri rightly said why not appoint him to a less critical post, like those in the Presidential Management Staff, if the President adamantly refuses to let him go.The Senate hearing on jueteng last week further confirmed PNoy’s bad choice. In that hearing Puno said he was approached by friends and well-wishers who wanted to set up meetings with known jueteng lords (later he named Bong Pineda as one of them).

When asked who these friends and well-wishers were, he could not give one single name, and told the senators he cannot remember.When asked if he did not have some kind of security or a log which recorded his visitors, or a reception office where visitors have to go through, Puno said he didn’t have one. On further questioning, he reiterated he had so many people going in and out of his office that he really can’t recall their names, not one.

This, from a person who is supposed to be an expert in security, the person the President himself tasked to administrate police and security matters?I understand it if the President values the loyalty of friends. His predecessors, former Presidents Estrada and Arroyo, pretty much had the same trait, which at times had led to various disastrous consequences for the country.

But please, Mr. President, if you want people to support the new government and give you and your officials a fair go, it might be a good idea to choose people who could serve the government based on their expertise and qualifications, people with impressive scholastic and public service records, and whose loyalty is to the country first, before his so-called friends.

As it is, your administration already appears to be overwhelmed by the huge task of running the country and doing the right thing. Mahirap ang daang matuwid, especially if you have people around you who are not so matuwid.

The Aquino administration is beginning to show signs that it could resort to the same kind of cover-up that its predecessor was notorious for...

Furthermore, there seems to be a double standard: one kind of due process for PNoy loyalists and another for others... PNoy is quick to publicly criticize what he sees as anomalies of the past administration, even without solid facts or full investigation, he has been just as swift in dismissing governance worries about his people.

... And without any investigation, he has denied Archbishop Cruz’s charges of jueteng links in his government, even though the opposition, including Aquino’s camp, once accepted Cruz’s word when the prelate was attacking the past administration...

By: Rick Saludo

Are we back to old-style patronage politics in the Aquino administration?

Asked whether he would accept the offer to resign made by his trusted friend and loyal supporter, Undersecretary Rico Puno of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), President Benigno Aquino 3rd told reporters covering his US visit: “There is a process. If I can give due process to our foes, our friends and allies are also entitled to that process.” “If I expect loyalty from them, I also have loyalty to them that I will give them due process, so that we will not be swayed by allegations and suspicions that are without basis,” the President added. Certainly, due process is not only the right of anyone accused. It is also a wise and just practice to ensure that any action taken and judgment made are based on facts, sound reasoning, the rule of law, and diligent, impartial study.

The problem is that there seems to be a double standard: one kind of due process for PNoy loyalists and another for others. To be sure, this “duo process” is no different from the ways of patronage politics practiced in the past and across the country, from Palace to pamayanan. But then, isn’t this administration supposed to turn away from old-style politics and follow the Tuwid na Daan? Yet when it comes to those outside his camp, the President is quick to judge, accuse or take adverse action with little, if any, effort to affirm the bases of what is said and done.

In his very first memorandum circular issued less than a day in office and revised soon after, President Benigno Aquino 3rd fired thousands of government officials and personnel holding non-career positions. No check on their qualifications, their years or decades of dedicated service, their work performance, or even the impact their sudden departure would have on the public.

Then came Executive Order No. 2 with pretty much the same exit orders for appointees of the previous president, on grounds that they were accepted after the March 10 deadline for appointments made by the outgoing chief executive. Again, whatever good work the fired bureaucrats might have done or however sterling their qualifications might have been, out they go.

Meantime, the Palace, in so many words, accused the Ombudsman of dereliction of duty for supposedly failing to take proper legal action on controversial anomalies in the past administration. Malacañang cited no specific errors in the rulings of Merceditas Gutierrez, who even excluded herself from cases involving the former First Couple. Nor was there any review of her anti-corruption initiatives, including those that helped get the Philippines the $434-million US aid package accepted by PNoy in Washington last week. Just the not-so-subtle threat: resign or be ousted.

It was not PNoy’s first challenge against a constitutionally independent official. Even before he took office, the president-elect made clear his disdain for the appointment of Chief Justice Renato Corona. No matter that the validity of his selection was affirmed by the Supreme Court with the full due process of en banc deliberation, oral and written arguments and two motions of reconsideration. Plus the top recommendation of Corona among nominees for the premier post submitted by the Judicial and Bar Council, which includes Aquino ally Sen. Chiz Escudero and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines representative.One more memorable episode: the removal of Prisco Nilo, longtime director of the weather bureau PAGASA. He was perhaps the first official publicly told off by PNoy. Two weeks into the new government, at a National Disaster Coordinating Council meeting chaired by the President, Nilo was criticized for failing to give more than an hour’s warning of Typhoon Basyang’s direct hit on Metro Manila.Weeks later Nilo was out of PAGASA and moved to a low-profile post in the Department of Science and Technology.

That prompted media to compare his quick transfer to the lack of any action so far on police and other officials involved in the Rizal Park hostage crisis, not even those like Usec. Puno who failed to ensure that the PNP Special Action Force was used in the bus assault, as the President himself had ordered.

This concern over duo process is not just about fair and equal treatment. More important is the effect that the apparent favoritism may have on how officials loyal to PNoy behave. Will they be deterred from corruption if they see the President showing “too much due process,” as jueteng payola accuser Archbishop Oscar Cruz put it?Indeed, while PNoy is quick to publicly criticize what he sees as anomalies of the past administration, even without solid facts or full investigation, he has been just as swift in dismissing governance worries about his people. He showed no great concern over conflict of interest issues involving Cabinet members. And without any investigation, he has denied Archbishop Cruz’s charges of jueteng links in his government, even though the opposition, including Aquino’s camp, once accepted Cruz’s word when the prelate was attacking the past administration.

Now the Palace is even abolishing the agency set up to investigate corruption allegations against presidential appointees. Every chief executive from Elpidio Quirino in the 1950s had its version of the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) to probe officials in the incumbent administration. PAGC is now among several units under the Office of the President slated for abolition.

Bottom line: If the President aims to fight corruption, he should be as tough on his loyalists as he is on other officials, if not tougher, to make it clear that he wlll not tolerate graft. After all, which is likely to keep officials straight—a leader who will investigate accusations, or one who is quick to dismiss them and defend his loyalists?

RP is a case of bad PR!

There are seven elements of good Public Relations, one of which welcomes the input of “neutrals” and especially “critics,” and adapts a strategy accordingly. In the dozens upon dozens of FB chats, blog posts and tweets we receive daily, it is quite obvious that P-Noys men are only interested in listening to supporters and former supporters for that matter. They have become the servants of their conflict-ridden factions and not the servants 90 million or so Filipino people.

The Manila Hostage Crisis with all its letdowns is above all a case of bad PR. What are you going to do when a crisis rears its ugly head? Are you prepared to head off the media in a PR nightmare? It takes a lot to fix a serious media goof up like the case of the “almost-internet sensation” Reyn Barnido and ilk turned Bonnie and Clyde!

The Manila Times editorial came up with a proposal to add a 9nth element in the Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC). They say that it was the “most critical: the gap in public relations that marked that tragic day. Unfortunately, the IIRC failed to include this in its report. By a PR gap, we mean the absence of a point person who should have communicated relevant information about the hostage-taking to the public, both local and international.To a certain extent, the haphazard creation of the Crisis Management Committee was to blame for this serious lapse in PR.

But as Sen. Aquilino Pimentel deftly pointed out during a recent inquiry into the matter, the whole hostage-taking incident became critical the moment dismissed Senior Insp. Rolando Mendoza boarded the tourist bus and announced that he was holding its 20 or so Hong Kong passengers against their will.

At that very moment, the incident risked turning into an international crisis, the PR for which should have shifted to high gear. We couldn’t expect police or local officials to have the PR savvy to communicate with a varied audience, much less an international one. This kind of competence should be expected of someone appointed higher-up, particularly at the level of the Presidential Communications Group.

That group’s failure to make the Philippine government’s presence felt was the ninth, and most critical, incident that turned an otherwise domestic crime into an international emergency with serious diplomatic repercussions.

Rather than blame the media, which heroically covered the day’s event, authorities should train their guns on the motley crew of misfits who bungled the handling of the hostage-taking event.

The IIRC report already listed many of those responsible for that fiasco, starting with the ground commander to the negotiator and rescue units.The report, however, stopped short of naming the PR contingent, whose absence—then silence, and finally whose fumbling statements—only made matters worse. Left to their own devices, the media were only doing its job. With no official setting the tone of information dissemination, the media therefore only reported what they could see and hear.

Unfortunately for those who handled the hostage crisis on the ground—from negotiations with the hostage-taker to manning the perimeter fence to planning and executing the rescue attempt—liability is clear-cut when your actions have a direct bearing on the fate of the hostages.

For those who allowed the hostage crisis to become an international spectacle, accountability, while indirect, is nonetheless undeniable.If only for that, they should spare the President further embarrassment and the nation additional harm. Is it any wonder that none of the members of the Presidential Communications Group went with the President during his US visit?

The Palace’s move to hire a foreign PR firm to handle communications, while expensive, indicates the Communications Group is not competent enough to handle the President’s requirements.

Assuming delicadeza runs in their blood, they should just resign.”

Cybercrime is worth an estimated $105 billion, according to rival computer security firm McAfee, and US police say cybercriminals can earn around $23,000 a week... The identity of our publisher, Amiel Aguilar Cabanlig (who has no personal twitter account), has been “stolen” and used for a malicious twitter account. Paul Farol’s child’s photo has been maliciously used by the blogsite “Barrio Siete (http://barriosiete.com/cyber-bully-edwin-jamora-is-paul-farols-seo-online-hate-campaign-to-shame-my-name/ )” to humiliate Farol in cyberspace.

Blogsites such as http://contrabelo.blogspot.com/ is being used by the group of Reyn Barnido (co-owns a company : http://outshoutcom.wordpress.com/) to “extort” P200M ($ 4,000,000) from Dra. Vicky Belo. "The prosecutor's office saw what it really is: a sham. Hingan ba naman ako ng P200 million ng complainants…," says Belo.

Last week, no less than the Philippines President wrote a personal letter to this notrious cyber-personality. The biggest problem and the criminal’s greatest advantage, is complacency, says professor Joseph Kee-Yin Ng, treasurer of the Internet Society Hong Kong.

Young, talented and socially aware - journalism student Mikas Matsuawa of the University of the Philippines has done the nation proud by calling attention to the importance of Democracy and Education on the world-stage... truly living up to her namesake.

In her Multiply profile, she says: Mikas according to the Bible: Means “Who is like God?” The name of a prophet whose prophecies were in the book of Micah (Mikas in English). He condemned social injustice and inequality, and corruption among the political and religious leaders.

The US State Department awarded Mikas Matsuzawa, a journalism student at the University of the Philippines, for her photograph that depicts the "dismal state" of Philippine education. Matsuzawa's was one of the 12 winners in the Democracy Photo Challenge 2010.

The photo was that of a young boy in school uniform, carrying a Christmas lantern, on his way to school along a narrow dirt road lined with dense foliage and riddled with puddles. The caption that completed the contest's phrase "Democracy is...", was:


The photo was taken in the Dumagat tribe of Rizal where children had to walk for two hours some of them barefooted to get to the nearest school, according to the journo student. Her photograph won from more than 3,000 other entries from 131 countries. The 12 winners were chosen based on online public voting by over 500,000 people. A jury narrowed the entries to 36 finalists representing each region of the world. The 11 other winners were from Afghanistan, Algeria, Australia, Azerbaijan, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovinia, Brazil, Iran, Nepal, South Africa, and the United States.

All the winning photos will be exhibited at the United Nations and at galleries in New York and Los Angeles.

Reyn Barnido destroyed so many lives...

Mother Theresa once said that “no one thinks of the pen while reading the letter. They only want to know the mind of the person writing the letter”. And that’s how I came to accept Rain, Rei, Reynaldo, or Rey Barnido (let’s call him IT for the mean time because he has no real name nor does he have no real identification). As a human being I willingly allowed trust to be the cornerstone of friendship never mind that online meetings have often been just a venture for scammers. From the Russian mob wanting to deposit millions into my account as surplus fund from the United Nations program to the Nigerians in London telling me that my long lost Auntie have left me millions in her will.

The bastards never realized that I am a proud brown skinned Southeast Asian who can’t possibly have an Auntie named Auntie Idris from London. Not only that I have no multimillionaire Auntie, it is a fact that in my family I am the auntie everyone relies on even if the money comes with an auditor and payment plan. How did it come about? Well it’s one of those scams that reached your soul and squeeze it tight you end up believing for so long that humans are indeed evil.

This is how the story unfolded. A relative showed brilliance scholastically, and poverty or so I thought would be a hindrance to this person getting a better life. His parents were uneducated barely scraping over secondary education while the other had none at all. In fact the father has been an illiterate drunk fool all his life everyone wishes that the dynamite he is holding would blow up already. So anyway Auntie (everyone calls me their auntie) wholeheartedly set forward in motion the desire to help by enrolling the relative to one of the most expensive university in Cebu called San Jose Recoletos. All expenses paid with a full year’s tuition paid in advance and monthly allowance remitted on time. The only requirement is for him to wake up, go to school, study and with rooms and food provided nothing seems luxurious enough considering that I lived off a can of sardines a day while going to university.

In hind sight I should have been more vigilant. It started with him wanting to cook his own food as it would be cheaper instead of “kasira”. Then a field trip to Leyte and then projects left right and centre. And then having “ALL” his tuition money stolen, we couldn’t refill his bank account fast enough. After 13 months I’ve raised suspicion and my husband tallied all the amount we sent and it came to some ridiculous 100,000 plus pesos.

After organising an investigation, I found out that the relative managed to get his girlfriend finished a university degree. For a 19 year old to create an elaborate scam was too much to bear. In fact I wanted him kneecapped 6 feet under while my brother wanted to bash him. It destroyed my trust that to this day I trust no one.

Well not until (IT) contacted the Victorina Council for help. It was a story worthy of an academy award. Homeless but with a lap top courtesy of the nuns, this vagabond (as he claims) had no one to turn to when a snatcher stole his backpack with all his belongings and identifications. The council couldn’t run fast enough to rescue him. Amiel managed to get his yaya to give him emergency help and on my side being distrustful of any Filipino with cancer or burial needs asked what was the monetary damage. I think I quartered it and sent him 5000 pesos. I sent it to (IT) through Western Union. I thought well, if this is a scam then let me see if you don’t have ID’s. He in fact was too clever than that because he told me that how can he claim the money when he already lost all ID. Well it made sense so I sent it to his friend called Felix C Bontog (who later flew with him to Boracay and stay in a five-star hotel).

Amiel trusted.

I trusted.

Amiel trusted enough to get him employed.

It seems we have all been betrayed.

True to form he bit the hands that feed him.

I say chop it!

Christ had Judas and so Victorina had IT.

Two to three weeks ago I received a cryptic email saying “mama Boldstar please help me”. As of yesterday we heard that IT sent a letter of threat.

Out apologies dear readers!

"Everybody is scared of the media!" says Sen. Joker Arroyo

“Don’t tempt us to use our powers here, to now issue a general broadcast policy—that will be a law, “Sen. Joker Arroyo warned the executives led by Maria Ressa of ABS-CBN. ABS-CBN insisted on turning Reyn Barnido (who is facing multiple charges of Estafa) into a national hero... Dona Victorina believes that someone has to vigilantly guard the supposed “gatekeeper of the fourth estate”- for they are by far susceptible to abuse and sleaze. Barnido has evaded several subpoenas sent by the Quezon City Prosecutor but showed up in ABS –CBN without batting an eyelash.

Addressing Ressa, Sen. Joker Arroyo said: “The problem, Maria, is this: Everybody is scared of the media. Let’s face it… You publish something unfavorable, then we’re finished.” Such is what broadcaster Gigi Grande and her broadcasting cohorts have unfavorably done by showing the public HALF-TRUTHS. No less than Senator Enrile asked “Where do you draw the line between serving your country’s interest and fulfilling your responsibilities as journalists? All of us are Filipinos, there is only one country to protect.”

The Manila Times reports “Sen. Arroyo warned that unless broadcast media learned to self-regulate, Congress would “hesitantly” craft a law in order to provide guidelines on how broadcast media should cover particular events. “There is competition between media. That is the problem. There is freedom of press, yes, but it is more directed to guarantee print media. The provision started with print media. When it comes to broadcast media, things are different,” the senator said.

He explained that since broadcast companies use airwaves, which are property of the state, they must be governed by certain regulations that the government imposes on media franchises.

“When you ask for franchises . . . it is a limitation on broadcast media. When you accept franchise, there is a limitation. That is a contract between broadcast media and government. That is why we never lose oversight powers over the broadcast media,” Sen. Arroyo said, reiterating that the government can issue a broadcast policy, which “we never exercised.”

“You think we are trying to bamboozle you, we do not want to do that. There are so many provisions there [Republic Act 7966] where we can intervene. But if you don’t self-regulate yourselves, we will be forced to make it reluctantly, hesitantly. So far, what you have given us are assurances [that you will]. We want something concrete,” he added.

Sen. Arroyo said that unless media challenge the constitutionality of the law on franchised broadcast companies, the power to impose regulations rests with Congress. “Who wants to battle media? But what happened that we were put in a bad light internationally is something we cannot forget. We are paying the price. If there is self-regulation, self-restraint, we are not meeting here right now. This is the consequence of that one [event]...

He also admitted that most government officials are “afraid” of media because of negative write-ups that might stem from their controlling what media can and cannot broadcast.”

WE do not want to be afraid anymore...

Bloggers should charily guard these gatekeepers of the fourth-estate!

Our story became explosive when Gen.Carlos Garcia’s wife, Clarita, tried to get her sons out of their family's hullabaloo. In her letter she says, “(husband) Carlos receives travel money and expenses in excess of several thousand dollars.

Corrupt General's Sons plead GUILTY!

I often travel with my husband on business and my travel expenses and shopping money in excess of US$10,000 to $20,000 is provided to me. He also receives cash for travel and expenses from the businesses that are awarded contracts for military hardware. These businesses are in Europe and Asia. He also receives gifts and gratitude money from several Philippine companies that are awarded military contracts to build roads, bridges and military housing... The expense money, gratitude money and shopping money is not declared as income...”

With the speedy justice system in the US, Monica Lawrence of WireUpdate reports that “the two sons of a former Philippine general pleaded guilty on Wednesday afternoon to bulk cash smuggling, U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag said on Thursday.

Juan Paulo Garcia, 29, of Pontiac, Michigan and Ian Carl Garcia, 32, of Las Vegas, Nevada were indicted on bulk cash smuggling and conspiracy charges. The two defendants are the sons of Carlos Garcia, a former general in charge of the armed forces in the Philippines.

Juan Paulo was also charged with failing to file a monetary instrument report and making a false statement to a government agency. The indictment was unsealed after their arrest in February 2009.

The brothers admitted that in December 2003 they smuggled $100,000 into the U.S. from Manila, Philippines by concealing the amount in their luggage. They also admitted making false statements to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers about the amount of money they were carrying.

The defendants eventually agreed to forfeit the $100,000 to the U.S. government in exchange for the U.S. to dismiss the remaining charges and to recommend a sentence of time served. The Garcia brothers have spent approximately 100 days in custody and a year and a half on electronic monitoring.

"This prosecution demonstrates our determination to combat and deter bulk cash smuggling, which is often a means of moving ill-gotten gains into the United States. We applaud the coordination and dedication of the many agencies, including those in the Philippines, that joined forces to investigate this case," said U.S. Attorney Haag.