Former Pagcor chairman Efraim Genuino is in hot water after the Philippine Department of Justice officially recommended the filing of charges of plunder, graft and corruption, and malversation of public funds against the former Pagcor chief and other Pagcor officials who served under his management.
According to multiple resolutions covering three cases against him, the DOJ found probable cause to charge Genuino with 175 counts of malversation of public funds, another 174 counts of violating the country’s Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, and violation of the Plunder Law. One such case involving the misdirection of public funds involved the use of Php50 million to support a local party-list group during the 2010 national elections that, incidentally, included one of his daughters, Sheryl Genuino-See.
In that particular case, it turned out that Genuino and a group of his henchmen “conspired with one another in amassing, acquiring, and accumulating ill-gotten wealth…in the form of illegal donations and irregularly approved sponsorships and contract awards.” The beneficiary for this siphoning of funds? The party list group Batas Iwas Droga (BIDA) for which his daughter Sheryl was a part of.
In a separate albeit more amusing case, the DOJ also found probable cause to charge Genuino with graft charges over using Php26.7 million in public funds to buy…movie tickets for the local movie Baler. Then there’s the case of the rice allocation for typhoon victims, which prosecution attorney Mary Jane Sytat found equal probable cause to slap Genuino with charges of malversation of public funds and property under Article 217 of the Revised Penal Code. According to Sytat, Genuino took over 1,200 cavans of rice from foreign donors to help typhoon victims and decided to do a little switch-a-roo, repackaging the rice into sacks that not only had his name on it, but had the smiling mugs of two of his sons on it too, making it look like the donations actually came from them to benefit their respective election campaigns.
Genuino has been embroiled in a lot of controversy after stepping down as Pagcor chief a few years ago. The DOJ’s recommendations to file charges on the man further adds to a man who suddenly finds himself on the defensive to answer all these allegations.
