SC: Pagcor funds subject to audit
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All funds of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor), regardless of the source, are subject to the audit jurisdiction of the Commission on Audit (COA), according to the Supreme Court.
The justices, sitting in full court, granted the motion for reconsideration filed by the COA and denied the petitions of former Pagcor officials Efraim Genuino and Rene Figueroa.
In 2013, Genuino, then Pagcor chair, and Figueroa, then senior vice president, were issued a notice of disallowance over Pagcor’s payment of P2 million in financial assistance for a flood control project at the Pleasant Village Homeowners Association (PVHA) of Los Baños, Laguna, a private association.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court reiterated the principle, enunciated in Section 4 of Presidential Decree No. 1445, that government funds or property shall be spent or used solely for public purposes.
“This applies to Pagcor, as a government agency,” said the Court.
Solely for public purposes
While the Court noted that Pagcor can fund infrastructure and sociocivic projects, such must be in the nature of an essential public service, consistent with the requirement that government funds must be used solely for public purposes.
“Incidental advantage to the public or to the state, which results from the promotion of private interests and the prosperity of private enterprises or business, does not justify their aid by the use of public money,” the Court added.
The Court found that PVHA is the primary recipient of the intended improvement, and any benefit to the larger community was speculative and merely incidental.
The Court emphasized that considering the novelty of the pronouncements in the instant decision, this ruling “shall be applied prospectively and shall not affect parties who had relied on, and acted upon, the force of former contrary views.”
The Court also noted that Article IX-D, Section 3 of the 1987 Constitution, which prohibits the passage of a law exempting any government entity from the jurisdiction of the COA, neither existed nor had a counterpart provision in the 1973 Constitution, the Constitution in effect when PD 1869 was enacted.
