A top military officer assigned at the First Infantry Division (1ID) based in Zamboanga del Sur province is under court martial proceedings for alleged fuel pilferage.

Maj. Gen. Ricardo Rainier Cruz, commander of 1ID, identified the accused Col. Aguinaldo Obal, current executive officer of the 101st Brigade, who was formerly assigned as logistics officer or J4 of the 1ID.

“It appeared that he doctored the records because during that time we were not yet computerized,” Cruz said, adding that the accused was not really the one who did the alleged tampering of records but only ordered one of his men, who turned witness and admitted that he was ordered to do so by his immediate officer.

The amount involved, he said, was only some 3,000 liters of fuel, equivalent to more than P100,000.

According to Cruz, the anomaly was uncovered during an audit inspection by the division’s chief of staff and intelligence officer, who noticed conspicuous erasures on the records.

He narrated that Obal may have done it by falsifying the actual amount of fuel remaining on storage and the amount actually received.

According to Cruz, the accused was charged with violation of the Articles of War 96 or conduct unbecoming an officer and gentleman.

Obal, he said, is still on duty but if found guilty he can be dishonorably discharged from the service.

Cruz also clarified that Obal is not a graduate of the Philippine Military Academy.

Last year, former chief of staff and now Immigration Commissioner Ricardo David and retired commodore Teddy Pan, then J4 or logistics officer, were also linked to the alleged P400-million anomalous distribution and consumption of petroleum, oil and lubricants supply of the military units.

But the three-man investigating committee created by then chief of staff and now Gen. Eduardo Oban Jr. cleared the accused.

Pan was then placed on preventive suspension during the entire duration of the investigation that ran for more than two months.