By Jel Santos
A gaming technology firm on Sunday urged the Philippine National Police (PNP), and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to go after the gunman and the masterminds behind the killing of its lawyer, Val Crisostomo.
Lawyer Val Crisostomo was shot dead by a gunman in front of the Justice Hall in Bonuan Tondaligan Dagupan City on Friday (May 17, 2019). Pangasinan police is now looking into the possible motive of the killing. (PHOTO BY AHIKAM PASION / PNA / MANILA BULLETIN)
Globaltech lawyer Crisostomo was shot dead while standing in front of the Justice Hall in Barangay Bonuan Gueset in Dagupan, Pangasinan last Friday.
Lawyer Bernard Vitriolo, Globaltech legal head, said that the cold-blooded murder of their lawyer also brought to light the serious irregularities at the Small Town Lottery (STL) operations in Pangasinan, which was earlier exposed by Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) board director Sandra Cam.
Globaltech’s head legal counsel said that killing of Crisostomo was very likely linked to their efforts to begin Peryahan ng Bayan (PnB) operations in Pangasinan. The gaming technology firm said the Court of Appeals had issued a status quo ante order (SQA) last January 15, allowing them to operate digit games nationwide pending an arbitration proceedings it ordered between PCSO and Globaltech.
According to Vitriolo, Crisostomo was one of Globaltech’s lawyers pursuing the filing of cases against several agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) who conducted allegedly illegal raids or arrests on their personnel and raids on startup operations of PnB games in Pangasinan, in violation of the SQA issued by the CA.
"The attack was not just on our lawyer and our company, but also on the country's justice system as it seemed to send a message that our enemies, the enemies of Peryahan ng Bayan, do not subject themselves to the laws of men, and the Rule of Law," Vitriolo said.
He said that the slain lawyer was attending to the firm’s criminal and civil cases against the NBI agents, as well as agents of SpeedGame, Inc., for past raids and arrests against PnB startup operations in Pangasinan when he was killed.
Cam held a press conference in Manila on Thursday right after walking out at PCSO’s special board meeting. She appealed to President Duterte to relieve her from her post as she could no longer “stomach the corruption” at PCSO.
In the press conference, she revealed that SpeedGame, Inc., had a P132 million shortfall in remittances to the PCSO for the government's share in STL revenues in Pangasinan.
She also called on Duterte to relieve her, and revamp the whole PCSO because of “rampant corruption.”
The PCSO board member said she was “ganged up on” by her fellow board directors during special board meeting.
According to her, they wanted her to go along with their recognition of a new set of officers for SpeedGame, Inc., led by a retired police general, David Diciano, who happens to be the mistah or military batchmate at the Philippine Military Academy of retired police general, Ted Quiano, the chief of staff of PCSO chairman Anselmo Simeon Pinili.
Cam even showed a legal opinion from the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) that advised PCSO against interference in the intra-corporate legal squabble in SpeedGame, Inc., and recognizing the Diciano group as SpeedGame’s new management.