PSC employee nabbed for stealing athletes’ and coaches’ salaries, allowances

MANILA, Philippines — A payroll officer of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) was arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for allegedly embezzling P14.44 million worth of athletes and coaches’ salaries and allowances, which he credited into his own account.

NBI said in a report on Wednesday that the suspect, identified as Paul Michael Ignacio, a PSC employee who was tasked with preparing the monthly salaries and allowances of PSC qualified coaches and athletes, was arrested after the NBI Special Action Unit found enough evidence against him.

The unit discovered that the suspect registered six unqualified employees into June’s PSC payroll. Ignacio then allegedly transferred P450,150 into his own payroll account.

NBI officer in charge Eric Distor said that the case stemmed from a letter given by the Land Bank of the Philippines to Merlita Ibay of PSC regarding the irregularities in the payroll account of the suspect.

This scheme was allegedly started by the suspect in August 2015, which led NBI to speculate that Ignacio had already embezzled around  P14.44 million.

“OIC Distor added that initial investigation conducted by OIC Ibay revealed that Subject Ignacio is an employee under the PSC-Personnel Office, who is tasked to prepare the payroll for the monthly allowance of qualified coaches and athletes and forward the same to the LBP,” NBI said.

“Subject Ignacio then includes the names of unqualified coaches and athletes in the payroll and puts his own payroll account number as the account number of the unqualified coaches and athletes,” they added.

The suspect allegedly included the names of unqualified coaches and athletes in the payroll and registered his own account number instead.

Authorities recovered the suspect’s laptop and desktop computer issued by the PSC for forensic examination.

The suspect is currently detained and may face complaints of qualified theft and falsification of public documents under the Revised Penal Code and for violation of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.

/atm