Coseteng files graft charges vs Genuino, Ramirez, Joseph

MANILA, Philippines - Former Sen. Nikki Coseteng yesterday filed graft and corruption and money laundering charges against former Philippine Amusements and Gaming Corp. chairman Efraim Genuino, former Philippine Sports Commission chairman Butch Ramirez and Philippine Aquatic Sports Association president Mark Joseph.

Coseteng filed the case before the Office of the Ombudsman. It concerns the reported P38.8 million in financial assistance directly released by Pagcor to PASA, from the period of Sept. 2007 to Dec. 2008, to fund PASA’s four-year program heading to the 2012 London Olympics.

Seven other Pagcor officials were also charged.

A substantial amount of P38,860,050.60 in Pagcor funds allegedly went to Trace College, Inc. (TRACE), a school founded by Genuino and his wife Aurora initially as a computer school in 1986.

The money was supposedly used to pay for the maintenance and upkeep of the swimming pools of the Trace Aquatic Center in Laguna and other expenses for the training cost of athletes.

Ramirez allegedly approved Pagcor’s direct funding of the PASA program, when under the law the money from Pagcor, a government-owned-and-controlled-corporation, should go through the PSC, the government’s funding arm in sports.

Coseteng, now president of the Diliman Preparatory School in Quezon City and manager of its swimming team, said Genuino “mainstains a direct pecuniary and financial interest” to the school where the Pagcor funds went to.

Apart from being a founder, Genuino, as records allegedly showed, was also a former member of the Trace board of trustees before he was replaced by his daughter Sheryl in 2004.

His son Erwin, who ran for mayor in Makati but lost in last year’s elections, also became a member of the board in 2007 while his wife served as president from 2002-2007.

It’s the PSC’s role then to distribute the money to the NSAs (national sports associations) concerned. In this case, Pagcor released the money directly to PASA, headed by Joseph.

Coseteng claimed that up to this day, the amount has not been accounted for, and that PASA funds since 2004 have not been settled before proper authorities such as the Commission on Audit (COA), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the PSC.

A PSC insider, however, said Joseph has clear liquidation reports with the PSC.

Harry Angping, who replaced Ramirez as PSC chairman, in 2009 asked Pagcor to stop the practice of releasing financial assistance directly to an NSA because in the end, the amount was eventually deducted from Pagcor’s monthly contributions to the PSC.

Angping said under this practice, the other NSAs also suffered because of the deductions when only a certain NSA, in this case PASA, actually benefited from the direct contribution. Whatever is left of the Pagcor’s monthly remittance to the PSC, after the deductions, will feed the 49 other NSAs.

Joseph yesterday said he has yet to see a copy of the case filed before the Ombudsman.

“So I don’t really know what to comment. All I know is that our purpose has always been for the benefit of our aquatic sports, funds were spent for that purpose and our athletes have produced many gold medals for the country internationally.

“And PASA produced the most number of Olympic qualifiers in the last Olympics. None of us have personally benefited in any way from those funds. Over the past years, we have not received any negative reports or disallowances from COA,” he said.

In short, Joseph said regardless of how the money from Pagcor was released or disbursed, it was spent for its purpose and did not end up in anybody’s pocket.

Ramirez yesterday said he could not recall entering into an agreement with Pagcor that the latter would directly give its financial contributions to PASA.

“Everything needed the board approval then. I will just answer the charges through my lawyer. If I did sign anything it was purely ministerial on my part. It was all between Pagcor and PASA,” said Ramirez, now based in Davao City.

A Pagcor statement issued yesterday, however, may show that Ramirez knew of the direct financial assistance because through a letter dated Aug. 2, 2007 the PSC thanked Pagcor for its assistance to the national athletes, and also allowed Pagcor to deduct from its monthly contributions to the PSC the amount being released to PASA.

“This is just the start, and we expect to unearth more anomalies within PASA,” said Philippine Swimming League president Susan Papa.

Also named respondents to the case were Rafael A. Francisco, former president and chief operating officer (COO) of Pagcor; Philip Lo, Danilo Gozo, and Manuel Roxas as former members of the board of directors; Ester Hernandez, former vice president for the accounting department; Valente Custodio, former assistant vice president for the internal audit department; and Edward King, former senior vice president for corporate communications and services department.

“This is shameless. Chairman Genuino did not even spare the money which was supposed to be for the development of our athletes,” said UP professor Harry Roque, who represented Coseteng and her fellow complainants.