CLARK FREEPORT – A former spokesperson of the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force in East Timor urged yesterday the Senate to look into the possibility that anomalies were already being committed in the use of UN funds.
The said funds are reportedly being coursed through the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) way back during his stint there from 2000 to 2001.
In an interview with Punto, Air force Maj. Isabelito Sanchez, who was designated by the UN as its spokesperson for the multi-national peace keeping forces from August 2000 to August 2001, recalled that he, together with some 350 Filipino contingent in East Timor, now Timor Leste, were given salaries amounting to $1,000 per month.
Sanchez is a recipient of 52 awards and citations, including a UN service medal given for his “meritorious service rendered as peacekeeping force staff in the UN International Administration in East Timor” in 2001.
“During pre-departure briefing at Camp Aguinaldo, we were told that our pay would be $1,000 a month, on top of our regular salary, since our food and accommodations in East Timor would be for free,” he recalled.
However, Sanchez said that upon reaching East Timor, he found out that other foreigners in the same UN staff he was assigned to were receiving $3,000 per month with the same food and accommodation privileges.
He said that six or seven other Filipino military men who were also deployed to East Timor got $3,000 per month, but he was told that this was because they were in intelligence operations and had to pay for their own food and house rentals.
This, he noted, did not explain why other nationalities in the same UN staff he was assigned to received as much.
Sanchez’s statement came in the wake of allegations of whistleblower Heidi Mendoza on missing UN funds for peacekeeping missions involving the Philippines.
Mendoza said that in the course of sniffing through the audit trail of former AFP comptroller Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia’s plunder case, she stumbled on information about a $5-million UN check meant for Philippine peacekeeping forces.
House defense committee chair Rep. Rodolfo Biazon said he received information that another $3 million from the United Nations was also reported lost by government auditors and that the UN funds were separate from the P200 million that Congress was setting aside annually for the military’s deployment of peacekeeping personnel overseas.
He pointed out that the Philippine government had deployed soldiers in seven international hot spots including the Golan Heights, Haiti, Liberia, Timor Leste, Darfur and Khartoum in Sudan and Ivory Coast.
But Biazon said that the deployed soldiers were indeed supposed to receive only $1,028 per month “regardless of whether he is a general or private.”
Sanchez noted, however, that after his stint in East Timor, the AFP adopted another scheme wherein soldiers deployed for UN peacekeeping missions had to choose between his regular pay or the pay offered by the UN.
Sanchez urged Biazon to look into this, as he got this information when he was “frozen” from his post upon his arrival from East Timor.
Sanchez has a pending appeal to Pres. Aquino for his reinstatement into the military from which he was dismissed after he filed a criminal case against a colonel for allegedly beating up his then pregnant wife here in 2003 over conflict over the operation of a canteen at the 600th air base wing here.
Sanchez said military officials later charged him before the PAF Efficiency and Separation Board (PAF-ESB) with “causing the publication” of the canteen incident, “bypassing the chain of command” and “seeking redress of grievances from a politician” in filing the case and “failing to submit his Commandant’s Paper on time and for failing to defend the same.”
In April, 2005, the board dismissed the charges and even cited Sanchez’s good performance and skills.
Sanchez was then listed up for promotion to the rank of major. He was dismissed from the service anyway in 2006. Sanchez’s appeal on his dismissal has remained unacted upon.
Sanchez reiterated his appeal for the President to “review, reconsider, amend, nullify and reverse any letter or orders pertinent to my separation from the service.”
Sanchez asked the President to reinstate him into active military service and restore the benefits “I had been deprived of.”
While his family is now financially stable with his income from real estate, Sanchez stressed that he preferred spending the rest of his years in the military to which he had devoted almost 17 years of his life.
Sanchez said he complied with the advice of military authorities to file his claims from the PAF’s finance department, but added that he could defer such claims should he be reinstated.
The said funds are reportedly being coursed through the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) way back during his stint there from 2000 to 2001.
In an interview with Punto, Air force Maj. Isabelito Sanchez, who was designated by the UN as its spokesperson for the multi-national peace keeping forces from August 2000 to August 2001, recalled that he, together with some 350 Filipino contingent in East Timor, now Timor Leste, were given salaries amounting to $1,000 per month.
Sanchez is a recipient of 52 awards and citations, including a UN service medal given for his “meritorious service rendered as peacekeeping force staff in the UN International Administration in East Timor” in 2001.
“During pre-departure briefing at Camp Aguinaldo, we were told that our pay would be $1,000 a month, on top of our regular salary, since our food and accommodations in East Timor would be for free,” he recalled.
However, Sanchez said that upon reaching East Timor, he found out that other foreigners in the same UN staff he was assigned to were receiving $3,000 per month with the same food and accommodation privileges.
He said that six or seven other Filipino military men who were also deployed to East Timor got $3,000 per month, but he was told that this was because they were in intelligence operations and had to pay for their own food and house rentals.
This, he noted, did not explain why other nationalities in the same UN staff he was assigned to received as much.
Sanchez’s statement came in the wake of allegations of whistleblower Heidi Mendoza on missing UN funds for peacekeeping missions involving the Philippines.
Mendoza said that in the course of sniffing through the audit trail of former AFP comptroller Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia’s plunder case, she stumbled on information about a $5-million UN check meant for Philippine peacekeeping forces.
House defense committee chair Rep. Rodolfo Biazon said he received information that another $3 million from the United Nations was also reported lost by government auditors and that the UN funds were separate from the P200 million that Congress was setting aside annually for the military’s deployment of peacekeeping personnel overseas.
He pointed out that the Philippine government had deployed soldiers in seven international hot spots including the Golan Heights, Haiti, Liberia, Timor Leste, Darfur and Khartoum in Sudan and Ivory Coast.
But Biazon said that the deployed soldiers were indeed supposed to receive only $1,028 per month “regardless of whether he is a general or private.”
Sanchez noted, however, that after his stint in East Timor, the AFP adopted another scheme wherein soldiers deployed for UN peacekeeping missions had to choose between his regular pay or the pay offered by the UN.
Sanchez urged Biazon to look into this, as he got this information when he was “frozen” from his post upon his arrival from East Timor.
Sanchez has a pending appeal to Pres. Aquino for his reinstatement into the military from which he was dismissed after he filed a criminal case against a colonel for allegedly beating up his then pregnant wife here in 2003 over conflict over the operation of a canteen at the 600th air base wing here.
Sanchez said military officials later charged him before the PAF Efficiency and Separation Board (PAF-ESB) with “causing the publication” of the canteen incident, “bypassing the chain of command” and “seeking redress of grievances from a politician” in filing the case and “failing to submit his Commandant’s Paper on time and for failing to defend the same.”
In April, 2005, the board dismissed the charges and even cited Sanchez’s good performance and skills.
Sanchez was then listed up for promotion to the rank of major. He was dismissed from the service anyway in 2006. Sanchez’s appeal on his dismissal has remained unacted upon.
Sanchez reiterated his appeal for the President to “review, reconsider, amend, nullify and reverse any letter or orders pertinent to my separation from the service.”
Sanchez asked the President to reinstate him into active military service and restore the benefits “I had been deprived of.”
While his family is now financially stable with his income from real estate, Sanchez stressed that he preferred spending the rest of his years in the military to which he had devoted almost 17 years of his life.
Sanchez said he complied with the advice of military authorities to file his claims from the PAF’s finance department, but added that he could defer such claims should he be reinstated.
