National Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin who was among the respondents in a plunder complaint over the allegedly anomalous P1.2-billion helicopter contract has filed a libel case against the whistleblower before the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office.
The subject of Gazmin’s libel charges is Bureau of Internal Revenue employee Rhodora Alvarez who earlier filed a plunder complaint against the Defense chief along with several officials, military officers and civilians including the owner of the American-based Rice Aircraft Services Inc., Robert Rice Jr.
“When the news came out regarding the alleged irregularities, I, as head of agency, ordered an investigation. The results of the investigation showed that the DND-AFP [Armed Forces of the Philippines] personnel who handled this project, in various stages, complied with the mandated procedures, and no irregularities were committed,” Gazmin stated in his complaint-affidavit he filed Friday.
“Based on this, I stand with the DND-Armed Forces of the Philippines officials, and I will lead the defense of these men and women, who were just doing their respective assignments, to further advance our most important program, the AFP Modernization Program,” Gazmin added. “We know that public service entails a lot of sacrifices, even being exposed to untruthful and malicious accusations.”
Gazmin also included in his complaint RASI’s agent, American-Vietnamese Thach Hoang Nguyen.
In her complaint, Alvarez alleged that Gazmin and the other respondents rigged the bidding of the P1.2-billion acquisition project for 21 UH-1 helicopters.
When the issue broke out that led the Senate to investigate, Gazmin partially canceled the project. Gazmin upheld the delivered choppers were above board despite reports made by the Philippine Air Force that some of the choppers were defective.
Gazmin charged that Alvarez is liable for three counts of libel for making “multiple malicious statements” during a radio interview on May 22, 2015, during the televised Senate investigation on July 7, 2015, and in a newspaper article published on Dec. 13, 2015.
He said Alvarez and Nguyen were also liable for falsification of documents in RASI’s bid for the contract of the UH-1 aircraft.