ShareThisMANILA — The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) filed on Monday before the Department of Justice (DOJ) plunder and graft charges against former PAGCOR chairman Efraim Genuino and 40 others for alleged misappropriation of P186 million in relation to questionable transactions that benefited BIDA Foundation Inc. and other entities between 2003 and 2010.
Efraim Genuino
PAGCOR chairman and chief executive officer Cristino Naguiat Jr. signed the 126-page complaint-affidavit filed before the DOJ in behalf of the state-owned gaming firm.
“The filing of this case today is a testament of our commitment to the public and to our employees that we will come out with the truth, and we will go after those who have committed wrongdoings against Pagcor in the past,” Naguiat said.
Aside from Genuino, also charged were former PAGCOR board members Rafael Francisco, chief operating officer and president; Manuel Roxas, Philip Lo, Danilo Gozo, Imelda Dimaporo, Ester Laconico Feria, Susana Dumlao Vargas, and Gamaliel Cordoba.
Cordoba is now the Commissioner of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).
Also named respondents in the plunder charges were former PAGCOR officials Jose Benedicto, chief-of-staff; Rene Figueroa, executive vice president; Edward King, vice president for Corporate Communications and Services Department; Atty. Carlos Bautista Jr., VP for Legal Department; Ester Hernandez, VP for Accounting; Valente Custodio, AVP for Internal Audit; Atty. Jesselyn Durante-Cuizon, assistant manager of Legal Department; Erwin Genuino, executive assistant of Legal Department; former Pagcor consultants Mario Cornista, Rodolfo Soriano Jr., Tomas Toledo, and Emilio Marcelo.
Likewise charged were BIDA Foundation incorporators/members, namely Jesus Velmonte, Cornelio Valerio, Nicanor Roxas, Michael Nisperos, Arnold Garchitorena, Angelo Tesoro, Jose Salindong, Johnny Tan, Philip Beltran, Luis Guerrero, Carol Matsuda, Olive Soriano, and Josephine Sumangil-Evangelista.
Genuino’s daughter Sheryl Genuino-See, who was the first nominee of the BIDA party-list, was also included in the plunder charge.
Other respondents are Manuel Nocon Jr., Dennis Celeste, Ronald Tagayon, Adriano Velmonte, Rafael Torcuator, and Anna Maria Espiritu who were incorporators/members of BIDA Production, Wildformat and/or Pencil First.
These three entities rendered creative and advertising services for BIDA and were allegedly heftily paid by PAGCOR.
Naguiat said that since his assumption in office last July 2010, the new PAGCOR management “has uncovered numerous irregular and anomalous transactions which were approved by the previous PAGCOR management favoring the Batang Iwas Droga (BIDA) Foundation Inc., BIDA Production, Wildformat Inc. and Pencil First Inc.”
Documents obtained by Pagcor showed that from 2003 to 2010, the respondents purportedly conspired with each other to “repeatedly and systematically siphon off PAGCOR funds into the coffers of BIDA entities, or to projects intended to boost the popularity of BIDA Foundation and/or the personalities behind it.”
The Batang Iwas Droga (BIDA) Foundation was a party-list candidate which lost in the 2010 national elections.
Aside from Genuino’s daughter Sheryl, other nominees of BIDA were Johnny Tan and Emilio Marcelo, who are both respondents to the PAGCOR plunder charge, Lamberto Barbin, and Dennis Villa-Ignacio.