Genuino asks DOJ to lift hold departure order

MANILA, Philippines -  Embattled former Philippine Amusements and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) chairman Efraim Genuino asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) yesterday to lift the hold departure order (HDO) issued against him and his two children in connection with a string of graft and corruption charges filed against them.

Genuino’s lawyer Ramon Esguerra asked Chief State Counsel Ricardo Paras III to lift within 15 days the HDO that purportedly violated his clients’ right to due process, since the DOJ has not yet established probable cause on the charges filed against them by the current Pagcor administration.

“This is pure discrimination and a blatant defilement of our clients’ basic constitutional right to equal protection,” Esguerra said.

Esguerra also questioned the regularity of the issuance of the HDO against the Genuinos.

He argued that it violated the Supreme Court’s circular no. 39-97, which provides that HDOs shall be issued only in criminal cases within the exclusive jurisdiction of the regional trial courts.

He cited the case of Santiago vs. Vasquez, et al where the SC held that unlike RTCs which could issue HDOs for criminal cases pending before them, “executive officers or administrative authorities are not armed with arbitrary discretion to impose limitations. They can impose limits only on the basis of national security, public safety, or public health and as may be provided by law.”

“From the investigating prosecutor to Secretary Leila de Lima, this department’s obvious tact to prosecute and persecute our clients cannot be ignored. Clearly, this department has taken the role of investigator, prosecutor, judge and executioner, which is opposed to its avowed observance of impartiality, fair play and due process,” the lawyer explained.

The DOJ ordered Genuino, his son Erwin and daughter Sheryl placed on the HDO list of the Bureau of Immigration last week.

Also included in the HDO list were former Pagcor chief operating officer and president Raphael Francisco, former Pagcor vice president for corporate communications and services department Edward King, former Pagcor executive vice president Rene Figueroa, former Pagcor vice president for legal department Carlos Bautista Jr., Batang Iwas Droga (BIDA) party-list nominee Emil Marcelo, former Pagcor consultant Rodolfo Soriano Jr., and Johnny Tan of BIDA.

The HDO would be valid for five years, and the respondents would not be allowed to leave the country unless they are able to secure an allow departure order from the DOJ.

The DOJ formed a three-member panel of prosecutors to handle the plunder compliant filed against Genuino and 40 others over the use of P186 million in Pagcor funds to support his daughter’s congressional bid in last year’s polls.

Pagcor filed graft and malversation charges against Genuino, his son Erwin and several others for misusing P26.7 million of the firm’s funds.

The Genuinos decried the DOJ’s violation of their right to travel as provided in Article III Section 6 of the Constitution.

Esguerra said that the DOJ obviously abused its power in issuing the HDO.

Genuino was accused of unauthorized release of funds to produce the movie “Baler” in a joint production of BIDA Productions and Viva Communications Inc.

There were also allegations against Erwin that he benefited from the 300-metric ton rice donation by a Japanese firm to the Philippine government during the election campaign in 2010 when he ran but lost in the Makati City mayoralty race.

The rice donation was supposedly intended for the victims of typhoon “Frank” in 2008 but parts of it were allegedly used to boost Erwin’s political campaign.

Sheryl, on the other hand, was the first nominee of the party-list BIDA Foundation in which funds from Pagcor were allegedly used to finance BIDA’s political bid.