MANILA, Philippines - Are they getting any sleep?
President Aquino yesterday hit former officials of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) in his State of the Nation Address (SONA), saying the transactions the gaming body entered into, particularly the P1-billion coffee consumption, were just too much.
The President’s speech focused on his accomplishments and the various anomalies in the past administration, which involved, among others, Pagcor’s questionable expenses for coffee over several years.
“One billion pesos were spent by the previous leadership of the agency for coffee. If they spent P100 per cup, it follows that they have consumed 10 million cups. It’s possible that those who consumed those coffee are still wide-eyed and very alert even if there’s already a new leadership at
Pagcor,” Aquino said in Filipino. “Let’s look for these people and ask them if they still manage to sleep.”
There was no immediate reaction from former Pagcor chairman Efraim Genuino, who was a no-show at yesterday’s first hearing of the Department of Justice (DOJ) on the graft and malversation charges over alleged misuse of millions of government funds to produce the film “Baler” in 2008.
His lawyer Benjamin Santos said Genuino skipped the hearing because he was not ready to submit an answer to Pagcor’s allegation that P26.7 million or two-thirds of the cost of production of the film by BIDA Productions Inc. and VIVA Communications Inc. was misappropriated from its funds.
Santos asked the DOJ panel chaired by Asst. State Prosecutor Gino Paolo Santiago to give his client more time to submit his counter-affidavit.
The other former officials of Pagcor and officers of BIDA Productions Inc. and VIVA Communications Inc. who were named respondents in the complaint were also mostly not ready to submit their counter-affidavits for various reasons.
The investigating fiscals granted their request and gave Genuino and the other respondents 15 more days or until Aug. 9 to submit their respective answers to the charges.
However, ahead of the counter-affidavit, Santos said his client would deny the charges.
“Everything (in the Baler project) was regular,” he stressed, refusing to further elaborate since he has yet to completely study Pagcor’s complaint.
It was the first of four graft cases Genuino is facing. The other three involve alleged diversion of funds to Batang Iwas Droga (BIDA) Foundation, which ran but lost in the party-list elections with Genuino’s daughter, Sheryl Genuino-See, as its first nominee; anomalous release of funding assistance worth P34 million to the Philippine Amateur Swimming Association, Inc. (PASA) beginning 2007; and rice donations and funds worth over P3 million allegedly used for his two sons’ electoral bid last year.
Santos said their camp would also question the hold departure order (HDO) issued by DOJ against his client over the plunder and graft charges filed by Pagcor against him and other former officials over at least four controversies.
“That is the prerogative of the DOJ. But we just would like to know if the circumstances in the issuance of the order were according to the rules,” he said, adding they would study first the justification in the issuance of the HDO before taking any action, including possible move to lift the order.
Edward King, former senior vice president of corporate communications and services department, attended the hearing and claimed the charges may be “politically motivated.”
King, like Genuino’s lawyer, also questioned the HDO issued by DOJ against them.
“Why did they have to take away our right to travel when we’re not criminals? We will attend the hearings for sure,” he said.
Pagcor, for its part, said Genuino and King were entitled to their opinion. But the state-run gaming firm’s lawyer Michael Gaspar said they have ample evidence to prove the charges.
He cited the eight witnesses presented before the DOJ panel yesterday who were privy on how “respondents, in conspiracy with each other, fraudulently appropriated, took, misappropriated or consented or, through abandonment or negligence, permitted another person to take public funds from the coffers of Pagcor.”
Gaspar bared that they have one or two more complaints to be filed against Genuino in the next few weeks.
Apart from Genuino and King, other respondents in the case are 10 other former officials of Pagcor: Rafael Francisco (ex-president/COO), former board members Manuel Roxas, Philip Lo and Gamaliel Cordoba (now commissioner of the National Telecommunications Commission), Jose Benedicto (ex-Pagcor chief-of-staff), Rene Figueroa (former executive vice president), Carlos Bautista, Jr. (former vice president of legal department), Esther Hernandez (former vice president of accounting department), Valente Custodio (former assistant VP for internal audit), Jesselyn Durante-Cuizon (former assistant manager of legal department).
Also included in the complaint are BIDA Foundation officials Mario Cornista, Rodolfo Soriano, Sr., Emilio Marcelo, Philip Beltran, Luis Guerrero, Olive Soriano, Jesus Velmonte, Carol Matsuda and Josephine Sumangil-Evangelista, current vice mayor of Los Banos, Laguna, officials of VIVA Communications, Inc. Vicente Del Rosario, Jr. (chairman and CEO), Marcia Gina Lopez (corporate secretary), Hermie Go (associate producer/road manager), Ma. Theresa Santiago (comptroller/accountant), and Tony Magtoto (sales/distribution representative).