The Philippines’ Commission on Audit has come down hard on ex Pagcor CEO Efraim Genuino over what it deemed as mis-using government funds to buy, of all things, movie tickets.
Genuino, together with eight former Pagcor officials, have been ordered by the COA to return Php26.7 million, money the group used to buy 89,000 tickets for the movie “Baler” back in 2008.
According to the COA, the Genuino-led group had no authority to splurge the government funds for freakin’ movie tickets because the Pagcor charter prohibits use of its funds for activities like the one Genuino’s administration cooked up leading to the release of the movie. Back then, the tickets were purchased for the purpose of distributing them to 12 Pagcor casino branches with the remittances reportedly made payable to Genuino’s Batang Iwas Droga (BIDA) Foundation Inc.
In addition to Genuino, other names the COA ordered to pay back the dough include former Pagcor board directors Rafael Francisco, Manuel Roxas, Philip Lo and Gamaliel Cordoba; former senior vice president Rene Figueroa; former accounting department vice president Ester Hernandez; former finance and treasury department vice president Estela Ramos, and former assistant vice president Pedro Michael Cendaña IV.
The only one former Pagcor official that escaped the COA’s decision was former Pagcor vice president for corporate communications Edward King, who was cleared of liability after proving that he didn’t participate in the act with official documents showing that he was out of the country days before the request for payment was signed in favor of Genuino’s BIDA Foundation.
Genuino and the rest of his cronies are still facing other graft and malversation charges so if they’re holding their breath that this is the only crime they’ll be charged of, they better sit back and wait for those other cases to come get their turn in the spotlight. In the meantime, they’ve been ordered by the COA to send back the money on arguably one of the dumbest ways to spend almost Php27 million.
Movie tickets…
