Pagcor sues former chief

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) on Tuesday filed criminal charges against its former chair, Efraim Genuino, his son Erwin and 25 other individuals for allegedly funneling P26.7 million from the state-owned gaming firm to finance the film “Baler” in 2008.

“This is just the start of a series of cases that we will file for the anomalous transactions entered into by the previous Pagcor officials,” Jay Santiago, Pagcor spokesperson and chief legal counsel, told reporters.

Genuino could not be reached for comment as of press time on Tuesday night.

Aside from the Genuinos, charged before the Department of Justice for malversation of public funds and graft were former Pagcor president Rafael Francisco; former board members Manuel Roxas, Philip Lo and Gamaliel Cordoba; and former employees Jose Benedicto, Rene Figueroa, Edward “Dodie” King, Carlos Bautista Jr., Esther Hernandez, Valente Custodio and Jesselyn Durante-Cuizon.

Also named respondents were Bida Foundation officials Mario Cornista, Rodolfo Soriano Sr., Emilio Marcelo, Philip Beltran, Luis Guerrero, Olive Soriano, Jesus Valmonte, Carol Matsudaa and Josephine Sumangil-Bautista; and Viva Communications Inc. chair Vic del Rosario Jr. and officials Marcia Gina Lopez, Hermie Go, Maria Theresa Santiago and Tony Magtoto.

According to Santiago, Bida Foundation and Bida Productions entered into an agreement with Viva to co-produce the movie “Baler” and finance two-thirds of the P40 million production cost amounting to P26.7 million.

Santiago said that both Bida Productions and Bida Foundation were headed by Erwin Genuino and composed of the other former Pagcor officials.

“Worse, Erwin Genuino acted as executive producer of the movie despite him being a Pagcor employee at the time,” Santiago said.

In an attempt to conceal the disbursement of funds, he said that King, former Pagcor communications director, issued a memorandum saying that the money would be used to buy movie tickets to be given free to regular patrons of the casinos run by Pagcor.

“They claimed that there was a high demand for movie tickets under Pagcor’s player tracking system,” Santiago said, referring to the state-owned gaming firm’s rewards system.

MMFF Best Picture in 2008

However, he said, documents showed that only P2 million worth of movie passes were actually distributed to casino patrons and Pagcor employees, and that the rest of the funds were used to finance the movie production.

The movie was entered in the Metro Manila Film Festival of 2008 where it won the Best Picture award. In 2009, it was adjudged Picture of the Year during the Star Awards of the Philippine Movie Press Club.

In 2010, Erwin Genuino ran for mayor of Makati City but lost to Jun-jun Binay. He and his father were accused of using Pagcor funds and resources to bolster his campaign.

Current Pagcor chair Cristino Naguiat had mulled over filing charges against the father and son then.