GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/25 Sep) – Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff General Alexander Yano today said that contrary to the reports that he has an unliquidated cash advances amounting to over P335 million while serving as Philippine Army chief, these were already liquidated except for P41 million that are still unaccounted for.

In a message to this reporter, Yano said that the remaining balance should be fully liquidated before the year ends.

On Wednesday, Bayan Muna party list Rep. Satur Ocampo claimed four former commanding generals of the Philippine Army have outstanding unliquidated advances amounting to almost P1.6 billion, citing reports from the Commission on Audit (COA).

Yano, however, said the cash advances were not his "personal obligations."

"Mahabang (It would take a long) explanation. Organizational process yan. Not (my) personal obligations," Yano said in a reply to the query forwarded to him.

The AFP chief was in Congress to attend to the budget hearing when pressed for his reaction.

He said the cash advances were mostly for pay and allowances of Army personnel, documentation and other expenses.

Yano was formerly the commanding general of the Philippine Army before he replaced retired general Hermogenes Esperon as head of the AFP.

Ocampo challenged the AFP leadership to look into the said COA reports.

He said these unliquidated cash advances are one of the forms of corruption in the Army.

"It is actually a challenge to the current Army chief Lt. General Victor Ibrado to clean up the corrupt practices in most of the infantry divisions and brigades across the country," Ocampo was quoted as saying.

Yano, however, said he will welcome any investigation but said the figure attributed to him was based on "erroneous interpretation of the annual COA report."

He failed to elaborate.

Of the amount cited by Ocampo, P997,449,222.85 or almost P1 billion was credited to former AFP chief Efren Abu who is now a special envoy to the BIMP-EAGA.

Generoso Senga, who replaced Abu and is now Philippine envoy to Iran, has P103,518,451.64 in unliquidated cash advances while Esperon has P69,845,067.14. (Edwin G. Espejo / MindaNews contributor)

---

Share this story through the following Social Media sites: