Camacho faces estafa raps

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Sports Commission yesterday filed a criminal case against former Wushu Federation of the Philippines president Julian Camacho for “authorizing, misrepresenting and claiming” the salary of a Chinese coach even when the coach was no longer in the country.

Chairman Harry Angping of the PSC said it was only mentioned to them recently that the coach, Ding Bao Yu, was no longer in the country. He ordered his staff to check the records, and they found out that Ding’s monthly salary and other benefits were withdrawn even when he was away.

According to the Bureau of Immigration, Ding arrived in the country on Dec. 11, 2007 and left on Jan. 18, 2008. While he coached the RP wushu team, perennial gold medal winners in international competitions, he received a salary of $1,000 and other benefits, including housing and utilities, of P27,000 a month.

But the PSC showed documents signed by Camacho requesting for the release of Ding’s monthly take from February to October of 2008. For this, the PSC filed eight charges of estafa against Camacho before the Manila Prosecutor’s Office.

“There was deceit and malice in the manner by which the salaries were withdrawn. For eight months they managed to do it. Why they stopped in October we don’t have an idea. But based on records, they withdrew the salary of the Chinese coach even when he was already away,” said Angping.

The total amount that was falsely withdrawn amounted to more than half a million pesos.

Angping said salaries and allowances of foreign coaches are collected through ATM, but not after the PSC gets a formal clearance from the national sports association or NSA concerned, in this case the wushu association then headed by Camacho.

Camacho, now secretary-general of the WFP group whose legitimacy is being contested by another group, said it was a case of miscommunication between him and the PSC, which was then under chairman Butch Ramirez.

“It was an honest mistake. We paid the Chinese coach, actually there were two of them, $1,500, a month and since the PSC can only give us $1,000 we paid them the full amount using our money. So we only tried to get our money back,” said Camacho.

“It was an honest mistake, and my fault was that we did not formally inform the PSC of the other withdrawals. We have records and vouchers to prove that we paid the coach $1,500 a month. It was an honest mistake,” he added.

Camacho said he has contacted his lawyers, and that he might call for a press conference this week.

Angping said from now on, salaries and allowances of the coaches, and maybe even those of the athletes, will be made available through the PSC cashier, and no longer through the ATM so they will be properly identified.