MANILA, Philippines - Congressmen are seeking the explanation of former Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) consultant Rodolfo Soriano on the $40 million he supposedly received from billionaire Japanese casino investor Kazuo Okada.
The House committee on games and amusement opened an inquiry into the alleged payoffs on Wednesday, but the panel failed to invite Soriano and former Pagcor chairman Efraim Genuino, with whom the $40-million man was reportedly closely associated.
Upon motion by several committee members, Manila Rep. Amado Bagatsing, committee chairman, said he would issue invitations to the two former Pagcor executives to attend the next hearing.
Bagatsing said he hesitated inviting the two until there was evidence proving the huge fund transfers to Soriano.
Federal investigators in the United States, who are looking into possible violations by Okada of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, have discovered suspicious payments by Okada companies to Soriano’s two firms amounting to $40 million (more than P1.6 billion).
The Japanese investor is building a hotel-casino complex at Pagcor’s Entertainment City in the Pasay-Parañaque area.
On Wednesday, Masahiro Terada, Okada’s Manila representative, confirmed to the Bagatsing committee that Soriano received two fund transfers totaling $15 million (more than P600 million) from Okada companies in May 2010, a month before President Aquino assumed office.
But Terada, who has difficulty speaking English, could not sufficiently explain what the transfers were for.
Of the $15 million, he said $5 million was a “guarantee fee” for a business agreement whose details he could not specify.
Terada said Okada’s company in Hong Kong got back the $10 million on the same day it was paid to a Subic firm reportedly owned by Soriano.