MORE WORMS CRAWLING OUT OF PCSO SCANDAL; 53 LAWMAKERS BENEFICIARIES
MANILA, JULY 22, 2011 (STAR) By Perseus Echeminada - At least 54 congressmen in 27 provinces across the country were believed to have benefited from the controversial small town lottery (STL), according to a Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) official during yesterday's hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee.
PCSO director Aleta Tolentino, in her testimony, revealed that STL operators directly remit to the congressmen their share of the STL sales representing 2.25 percent of net proceeds from the area where they operate.
The STL share of the legislators remained unliquidated. The PCSO has no record of remittances to congressmen, but a document obtained by The STAR showed that at least 54 lawmakers from the 14th Congress were the supposed beneficiaries of the STL operations in their respective jurisdictions from 2007 to 2010.
The new PCSO management scrapped STL last February and launched the Loterya ng Bayan.
At least 23 of the 26 in the defunct STL, which were exposed as alleged fronts of jueteng operations during a congressional hearing, have applied for permits for the Loterya.
The STL operators were among the 237 applicants who are seeking permit to operate Loterya in various parts of the country.
Because of this revelation, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. is asking the PCSO to furnish his office with the list of congressmen who received shares from the STL proceeds.
Belmonte and House majority leader Mandaluyong Rep. Neptali Gonzales said they are open to conducting a separate probe on the PCSO if only to clear the name of the House of Representatives.
Gonzales said the PCSO officials, in disclosing the contributions received by some lawmakers whose districts have STL operations, made it appear that there were legislators who committed anomalies.
"We will write the PCSO," Belmonte said. "There is an allegation but there's no detail, so we will ask the PCSO."
"If only for us to clear the name of the House as an institution, then we will be forced to investigate this matter," Gonzales said.
Cavite Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya admitted receiving a check amounting to less than P5,000 as his share in the STL operations in his district a long time ago, but said he did not know at first why he received such until he made inquiries.
However, he said he did not encash the check or donate it to the church since he knew it came from gambling.
The listed congressmen include Rep. Wilfredo Enverga, Proceso Alcala, Danilo Suarez and Lorenzo Tañada III (Quezon Province-Pirouette Corp.); Carmelo Lazatin, Juan Miguel Arroyo, Aurelio Gonzales and Ana York Bondoc (Pampanga-Lake Tahoe Gaming Corp./Sun Cove Corp.); Herminia Roman, Albert Garcia (Bataan- Sunset Bay Research Corp.); Rodolfo Valencia, Alfonso Umali (Occidental Mindoro-Royal Viva Research Corp.); Danilo Ramon Fernandez, Justin Mark Chipeco, Maria Evita Arago, Edgar San Luis (Laguna-Ramroid Gaming Corp.); Victor Alvarado, Pedro Pancho, Lorna Silverio, Reylina Nicolas (Bulacan-Diamond Gaming and Research Corp.); Julio Ledesma, Alfredo Maranan, Jose Carlos Lacson, Ignacio Arroyo, Genaro Alvarez, (Negros Occidental-Super Lucky Beagler Inc.);
Raul Gonzales Jr. (Iloilo City-Iloilo STL Corp.); Diosdado Arroyo, Luis Villafuerte, Arnulfo Fuentebella, Felix Alfelor (Camarines Sur- Everhance Gaming Corp.); Salvador Escudero, Jose Solis (Sorsogon-Oceana Sur Gaming Corp.); Maria Amelita Villarosa (Oriental Mindoro-Sierranuestra Corp.); Roque Ablan, Ferdinand Marcos II (Ilocos Norte-Lucky Pick Amusement and Development Corp.)
Also included were Edcel Lagman, Al Francis Bichara, Ramon Lim, (Albay-Pilipinas Pacific Rim Corp. – suspended in 2009); Eileen Ermita-Buhain, Hermilando Mandanas, Victoria Reyes, Mark Mendoza (Batangas-Enhanced Technology System); Eduardo Nonato Joson, Joseph Gilbert Violago, Czarina Umali, Rodolfo Antonino (Nueva Ecija- GTC Prime Ventures Corp.); Rodolfo Albano, Edwin Uy, Faustino Dy, Giorgidi Aggabao (Isabela-Strong Peak STL Games/ Community Gaming Amusement Network/ Random Choice Gaming Corp.); Joseph Emilio Abaya, Elpidio Barzaga, Jesus Crispin Remulla (Cavite-Lucky Tytanium Corp.).
However, Rep. Barzaga angrily denied that he was among the recipients of such proceeds.
"I have never received any check from them. Where's the evidence? Do they have an acknowledgement receipt from me, Congressman Barzaga? They better be sure of their records or I'll go after them," he said in a telephone interview.
He said he would want to put PCSO officials under oath regarding their statement that he was among the recipients.
Rep. Aggabao, on the other hand, said he received some checks from the PCSO and they were "duly-receipted."
"To my knowledge, the operation of the STL was open and not intended to be sub rosa. In fact, the PCSO closely supervised it," he said.
Rep. Fernandez also admitted to receiving proceeds from the STL operations.
"These were all properly liquidated and this is better. Some oppose the STL because they receive something bigger from jueteng, which is illegal. The STL was meant to combat jueteng. I'm not sure of the results though," Fernandez said.
Other lawmakers could not be reached for comment.
Senate wants PNP to explain PCSO funds
At the Senate, the Blue Ribbon committee has sent invitations to Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Raul Bacalzo to explain how the police used their multi-million funds from the PCSO.
Blue Ribbon chairman Sen. Teofisto Guingona III said invitations have been sent to Bacalzo and the PNP's resident auditor, but it will be up to the PNP chief to determine who among his officials will attend the Senate hearing on Tuesday next week.
During Monday's hearing, PCSO general manager Ferdinand Rojas II noted that five percent of the PCSO's charity fund has been allocated for the PNP.
The five percent PNP share is broken down as follows: 0.5 percent to the PNP headquarters at Camp Crame, 0.5 percent to the regional offices, one percent to the provincial offices, and three percent divided among the city and municipal PNP.
"They are supposed to get it on a monthly basis," Rojas told the committee after his brief presentation last Monday on how the PCSO under the new leadership of chairman Margarita Juico improved in terms of performance.
Guingona also wanted an audit of the authorized STL operators nationwide to determine the process of how much was given out to the police.
He has inquired from the PCSO officials how the PNP funds were accounted for in the local police levels and was surprised that the PCSO merely got "acknowledgement receipts" supposedly from those who received the STL share in the local police levels.
"As far as the national (police) is concerned, it is clear, the PCSO is remitting it and the checks are in the name of the PNP, I presume," he said.
"As to the provincial, there is none. As to the regional or municipal, nobody can say these funds went there," Guingona added.
Sen. Francis Escudero, on the other hand, recommended that the PNP officials should be summoned in order for the Senate to get a clearer idea on how the PNP used their PCSO allocations.
Lawyer Fidela Tan, of the Commission on Audit (COA), said the distribution of STL funds to the PNP started in 2007. However, the COA was not given any audit papers regarding these funds.
Rojas said the PCSO also had no way of verifying if the PNP local offices' share were indeed given by the STL operators.
Rojas explained that there was a time in 2008 when a whole amount for four months was remitted to the PCSO, but reverted to the old proportion afterwards.
Because of the controversy, Escudero has also called for the amendment of the PCSO charter to take away the discretionary powers of the board over the agency's charity funds.
He has filed Senate Bill 2892 that will amend Section 6 of the PCSO's charter in order to institutionalize a just and equitable distribution of the charity funds.
Under the bill, the PCSO board would also be required to secure the approval of the Office of the President in cases when it needs to allocate over 15 percent of its funds.
"Arbitrariness has always led to abuse. We want transparency. As I have always espoused, remove discretion, you can lessen, if not totally remove corruption," Escudero said.
Meanwhile, game show host Willie Revillame has joined the bandwagon of donors in the fund raising campaign aimed to purchase new vehicles for the bishops who were recently dragged into the PCSO fund mess controversy.
Election lawyer Romulo Macalintal, one of the organizers of the fund-raising campaign, reported that Revillame donated P100,000 to their cause.
As of yesterday, Macalintal said P1.5 million has already been collected and pledged. – With Christina Mendez, Marvin Sy, Paolo Romero, Evelyn Macairan
PCSO: Nothing illegal in STL shares of lawmakers By Perseus Echeminada (The Philippine Star) Updated July 22, 2011 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) yesterday said there is nothing illegal with some lawmakers benefiting from the operations of small town lottery (STL) in their congressional districts.
In a statement, the PCSO board said the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the PCSO on the STL project allowed the disbursement of funds to congressmen requesting financial aid for their constituents.
"The IRR was adopted by previous PCSO boards in furtherance of the charity office's goal to expand its services to destitute patients and poor Filipinos needing medical care," the board said.
The PCSO board issued the statement following reports that at least 54 congressmen in 27 provinces across the country were believed to have benefited from STL operations, quoting PCSO director Aleta Tolentino during the Senate Blue Ribbon committee hearing on Wednesday.
Tolentino revealed STL operators directly remit to the congressmen their share of the sales, representing 2.25 percent of net proceeds from the area where they operate.
The STL share of the legislators, however, remained unliquidated.
The PCSO has no record of remittances to congressmen, but a document obtained by The STAR showed that at least 54 lawmakers from the 14th Congress were the supposed beneficiaries of STL operations in their respective jurisdictions from 2007 to 2010.
The new PCSO management scrapped STL last February and launched the Loterya ng Bayan.
But the PCSO board said the report placed congressmen who received their share from STL in a bad light.
"We are prepared to clear their names in the media or in any public forum," the board said.
"The PCSO will continue to work in close partnership with local governments – the congressional districts, city, town and provincial jurisdictions – to bring government help to the sick and the needy, and to economically distressed communities."
One of the legislators, Camarines Sur Rep. Arnulfo Fuentebella, yesterday denied receiving a share from the STL operations in his district.
He claimed he returned his supposed share back to the PCSO.
Fuentebella showed a copy of his letter to then PCSO vice chair and general manager Rosario Uriarte stating that he cannot accept any proceeds from STL. Attached to the letter were copies of the checks he returned to the agency.
Fuentebella lamented, however, that his request for an ambulance in his district had been repeatedly ignored for the past nine years.
It was also gathered that some local officials and the police are receiving shares from STL operations in Tarlac and Zambales.
Among the lawmakers who were supposed to have received the STL share were Tarlac representatives Monica Prieto Teodoro and Jeci Lapus.
In Zambales, among the supposed beneficiaries were representatives Maria Milagros Magsaysay and Antonio Diaz. It was not known, however, if the two lawmakers actually received their share.
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