MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Antonio Trillanes on Friday said he was staggered by the corruption in the military that allowed incoming and outgoing chiefs of staffs to receive millions of pesos in cash.

Trillanes said even he was surprised to hear former budget officer Lt. Col. George Rabusa's revelations during the Senate blue ribbon committee hearing on Thursday.

"My idea ako sa pabaon pero yung pasalubong, that was a first for me. Yung ganung magnitude hindi namin inisip na ganun kalaki. Nakakalula yung revelations ni Colonel Rabusa. Yung pabaon sa ibang branch of service from what I heard mas malaki pa," Trillanes said in an interview on ABS-CBN's "Umagang Kay Ganda."

In his testimony, Rabusa said former AFP chief Angelo Reyes received P50 million in "pabaon (send-off money) when he retired in 2002. This was apart from th P5 million in monthly discretionary funds that he received from the military comptroller's office.

Rabusa said former AFP chiefs Diomedio Villanueva and Roy Cimatu received P10 million each in pasalubong (welcome gift) when they assumed the AFP leadership.

Rabusa said he kept a Provision for Command-Directed Activities (PCDA) slush fund, which had a monthly funding requirement of P40 million.

"When I was there..the programmed P40 million every month for PCDA was being controlled by the chief of staff. If we cannot come up with the amount, this is augmented by the major services – Navy, Air Force and the Army - and the key budgetary units, the PMA, the PSG and AFP Medical Center or V. Luna (Hospital) so that we could generate the P40 million a month which is equivalent to about P480 million a year and that is the so-called PCDA that is readily available to the disposal of the chief of staff,” Rabusa said.

For his part, Trillanes said the PCDA was given various names such as incentive pay or core command staff representation.

He added that while a representation allowance for the chief of staff is understandable, a P5 million monthly allowance is "staggering."

"That's a systemic form of corruption. The leader loses his moral authority to cleanse the system because [the corruption] is automatic," he said in Pilipino.

He noted that only one military official, Admiral Guillermo Wong, had the guts to turn down the offer of discretionary funds from the military comptroller. He thus had a free hand to clean up the Philippine Navy.

However, he was later removed from his post by Reyes.

Garcia can still testify

The senator said he has already subpoenaed procurement records of the Armed Forces during the terms of Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia and Reyes as well as special allocation release orders of the budget department to determine where the 2 officials sourced the funds for the PCDA.

He noted that the discretionary funds of the AFP could have come from special releases of the national government approved by Malacañang.

Trillanes urged former military comptroller Garcia to corroborate Rabusa's testimony to salvage what is left of his reputation. Garcia is a former military comptroller who allegedly pocketed P303 million in military funds while on active duty.

"Mas marami siyang nalalaman. I told him the door is still open and he can still corroborate. He was jailed and he had to return the bulk of what he got but why is he protecting these people? What is the reason?" Trillanes asked.

The senator said he will leave it up to Senate Blue Ribbon Committee chairman TG Guingona if he wants to summon former military chiefs to the inquiry.

He said the inquiry into military corruption was necessary so that ordinary soldiers will see "habang isinusubo sila at the risk of their own lives, itong mga nasa taas ay nagpapakasasa."

Trillanes admitted that the issue of military corruption was a personal one for him since he was jailed for 7 and a half years for participating in the 2003 Oakwood Mutiny that exposed corruption in the military.

He said he was irked by Reyes's claims that he never benefited from corruption while in the military.

"Dapat inisip niya yung mga sundalo nung tinatanggap nila yun. Ni combat pay ng mga sundalo hindi nila maitulak. Ang lakas lakas nila kay GMA, They had that power to influence her - 25% of the base pay, 240 lang ang combat pay ng sundalo. Hindi nila magawa. Doon mo makikita ang injustice," he said.

Asked if he believes if Reyes is corrupt, Trillane said: "I believe so. Angie Reyes is one of the principals of General Garcia.