By Dante A. Ang

Here’s a window for P-Noy to demonstrate his resolve to rid our country of wrongdoers and corrupt individuals. Three cases involving the former Pagcor chairman for misappropriating government funds for his personal use that were unearthed recently are too glaring to be swept under the rug. I am talking here of the rice donated by a putative Japanese client of Pagcor to the Typhoon Ondoy victims. At issue is whether or not the rice donations were misappropriated by Pagcor Chairman Eph-raim Genuino for the campaign of his children in the May 10 elections. Genuino, in his earlier statement, claimed ownership of the rice, and that he donated them to Pagcor; ergo, he could not have misused it. In his subsequent statement, he said something like, “People interchange Pagcor with Genuino and vice versa.” He added that the Japanese investor is a good friend of his.

When I was campaigning for the Party-list Ahon Pinoy during the last elections, stories abound that voters in Los Baños were gifted with a regular supply of rice, apples and oranges. Every week, they were treated to an extravaganza with movie stars regaling the crowd.

In my campaign sorties in Los Baños, I would ask my audience in jest, “Sino dito sa inyo ang nabiyayaan ng mansanas at orange? Taas ang kamay.” Many of them raised their arms in hesitation as if feeling embarrassed and showing remorse. I would follow up my question with a soothing and calming reassurance that I fully understood them and that they should accept the rice, apples and oranges from the politicians without shame or guilt. A deafening applause followed everytime I said, “Pera ng bayan, isauli sa mamamayan.”

I have been to a few places in the country while campaigning for Ahon Pinoy. I haven’t seen anything that resembles Genuino’s give-aways in Los Baños during his son’s campaign for the mayoralty post. Rice, yes; but imported apples and oranges? These are unusual freebies for a local candidate to be distributing to voters.

Which brings me to my questions: “Where did those apples and oranges come from? Did Genuino buy the give-aways at a hefty discount from some Pagcor suppliers? Were the oranges and apples donated to his sons [the other Genuino son also ran in Makati for mayor, and lost] by his casino-business friends?”

What about Pagcor’s donations to Genuino’s own party-list, Bida, that had his daughter as its first nominee? If this is not a clear violation of the anti-graft law, I do not know what is.And what about those Bida commercials on television, radio and print? If I recall, those ads boasted about the millions who had attended the rally in Luneta against illegal drugs and having presumably broken the Guinness world record for mass attendance.

Pagcor sponsored the event and paid for the costs of advertising. I still remember that the radio commercial had a tagline with Genuino asking, “Bida ka ba? O di, sali na.”More, what’s the status of the P26 million worth of hamburgers and value meals purchased by Pagcor for the police officers from McDonald? Is the present Pagcor leadership looking into it?

I spoke briefly to a PNP senior superintendent in charge of the police contingents during the rallies held near the US Embassy and in Mendiola. He confirmed that Pagcor did indeed supply the law enforcers with hamburgers and value meals from the famous fastfood chain.He said that there were occasions when there were two or three rallies a day. The police, he added, needed the food brought to them so they would not have to leave their posts and create gaps in their ranks.

In all, he estimated that the hamburgers and the value meals must have covered a period of a little over three months for some 150 policemen every rally.

I’m not a math genius but even if the police were fed three times a day for three months, the expenses would not even come close to P26 million. Assume that the cost of a value meal is P150 multiply that by the number of policemen which was 150 per rally, multiply again by three meals a day, and once more by 90, the number of rally days (assuming of course that the rallies were held 90 days straight, including Sundays, which is ridiculous), the expenses would only amount to P2,025,000, not P26 million! So whose pockets got richer by P24 million?

I chanced upon a former Pag-cor official one weekend and our conversation veered towards the past Pagcor officials’ alleged graft practices. I asked him why there are no charges being filed against former Pagcor officials given what a lot of people say were naked violations of the Anti-Corrupt Practices Law during their term?

He said that the new Pagcor leadership is preparing to file charges against the former gambling officials and their cohorts. He explained that the documents are being gathered and organized to make sure the cases filed will be airtight. Let’s see.