Why too quick to crucify fellow Pinoys?

What is it about our culture that makes us quickly condemn one of our own simply because foreign “experts” have accused them of wrongdoing? Why do we have the penchant to accept as gospel truth a mere say so by foreigners who deem unacceptable how we do things if this is not the way they want it done?

Unfortunately, this kind of mindset apparently proliferates even among people in power.

This seems to be the situation that Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) chairman Cristino Naguiat Jr. found himself embroiled in after being named in a lawsuit filed by feuding giant casino operators in Las Vegas, Nevada. Hence, Naguiat came under fire from certain congressmen who swallowed hook, line and sinker a report prepared and paid for by American casino magnate Stephen Wynn, chair of Wynn Resorts.

In a bid to ease out his partner, a bitter Wynn accused in federal court his casino partner, Japanese gambling mogul Kazuo Okada, after the latter got into other joint venture projects outside Las Vegas. Okada opted to invest in the Philippines under Pagcor’s $5-billion “Entertainment City.“ This is the gaming, hotel and resort project at the reclamation area in D. Macapagal Avenue in Pasay City that was started by Naguiat’s predecessor, ex-Pagcor chief Efraim Genuino.

Local politicians here went to town to ask for Naguiat’s head much like King Herod’s Salome asking for the head of John the Baptist after her enchanting song-and-dance. Worse, they want Naguiat crucified without any benefit of a public trial, not even through a kangaroo court.

Wynn ousted Okada on the basis of an investigation prepared by former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Louis Freeh. That report accused Okada of having provided Naguiat and other Pagcor officials luxurious rooms, a sumptuous dinner and other perks at the Wynn Resorts in Macau in 2010, in violation of US anti-corruption laws.

Too eager to jump on the bandwagon of administration critics, these politicians took little effort to find out the credibility of the Freeh report, including the credibility of discredited ex-FBI chief. From the outset, the Freeh report was obviously tailor-fit to allow Wynn to ease out Okada for choosing to invest in the growing mega-gaming business in the Philippines that would compete with the Wynn Resorts in Asia.

At the first break of this news from Las Vegas, it already reeked of intra-corporate dispute reaching our shores.

In his complaint against Okada in the US, Wynn had accused his estranged business partner of using the latter’s two casinos and three hotels at Entertainment City in Manila to lure “high-limit, VIP gamblers” from China. This would certainly eat into Wynn’s casino market in Macau, in direct competition with him.

If we look at Freeh’s tenure as FBI director in the US from 1993 to 2001, we can see a man haunted by his checkered past. In particular, Freeh’s credibility is tainted by his alleged propensity to either hide or play and hype up facts to suit his own agenda: either to butter up his bosses during the Clinton administration, or to gain media mileage.

Our online readers from the US have written to say that people in America are laughing at us for taking the Freeh report seriously. In the US, Freeh has been all but been discredited for figuring in one controversy and scandal after another. The worst scandal of the FBI under Freeh was the so-called Waco siege and firefight of 1993 in Texas. This resulted in the death of four federal agents and six members of the Protestant sect led by their leader David Koresh, thus the group was called “Branch Davidian.”

Although he was not responsible for the bloody raid, FBI men under Freeh have been accused of lying before two separate congressional investigations, an independent counsel inquiry, and a major multi-million dollar wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of some Branch Davidian survivors. 

Our online US readers related to us another FBI fiasco during Freeh’s watch related to scientist Wen Ho Lee. We checked the Internet about Lee’s case. Dr. Lee, a nuclear scientist at the US lab at Los Alamos, was accused by the FBI under Freeh of stealing “crown jewels” of US nuclear secrets and purportedly passing these on to the Chinese. 

A senior FBI agent allegedly misled a federal judge about Lee’s supposed espionage activities that led to his solitary confinement for nine months. With little proof of the charges, the federal judge ordered Lee set free. In his ruling, the judge slammed the senior government officials responsible for both the investigation and the false testimony for it “did not embarrass me alone, but... the entire nation.” 

Yes, this is Freeh, the same person now accusing Naguiat of various acts of impropriety. Sadly for Naguiat, fellow Filipinos refused to believe his vehement denials of Freeh’s accusations. It is simply because Naguiat is one of the so-called ‘K.K.K.” or “Kaklase, Kaibigan, Kabarilan” of President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, or P-Noy for short.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. was quoted as saying Naguiat and other Pagcor officials were already cleared by the House committee on games and amusements of any wrongdoing.This was in response to fresh investigation being sought ironically by a left-leaning House party-list representative who believed the American propaganda. His name sounded like casino.

Who then do we believe? Do we believe in the testimonies of a Filipino official who clearly got caught up as collateral damage in the fiery intra-corporate war between gaming giants Wynn and Okada? Or do we give credence to the report of a former FBI chief who hid for six years key facts about the death of 76 people and allegedly produced trumped-up, baseless accusations against a Chinese nuclear scientist that resulted in his unnecessary incarceration for nine months?

Should we then crucify the incumbent Pagcor chief for getting into trouble for doggedly pursuing the dream to make the country the newest gaming destination to rival Las Vegas, Macau and Singapore?

Should we crucify someone who decided to pursue and complete the Entertainment City project that could lure in more tourists, create millions of new jobs here and generate additional sources of income for our people and our country?