Graft complaints have been filed against Mayor Jaime C. Capil of Porac, Pampanga and nine other town officials over the operations of Lucky South 99, an illegally operating Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) that was raided by authorities due to reported criminal activities, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said late Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 16.
Bulacan Provincial Prosecutor Ramoncito Ocampo Jr., a member of the DOJ-led Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT), said the complaints were filed before the DOJ by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) and the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG).
Aside from Capil, also named in the complaints were Vice Mayor Francis Laurence Tamayo; Business Permit and Licensing Office head Emerald Salonga Vital; Sangguniang Bayan members Rafael M. Canlapan, John Nuevy L. Venzon, Rohner L. Buan, Michelle B. Santos, Hilario DC Dimalanta, Essel Joy C. David, and Addrian R. Carreon.
They were accused of violating Section 3(e), (f), and (j) of Republic Act (RA) 3019, the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
Ocampo said “this was a result of a case build-up and coordinating conference with our partners in the Department of Justice, the PAOCC, and the CIDG, and kasama rin ang aking IACAT team (including my IACAT Team….”
He said that more complaints will be filed over the Porac POGO.
“We are still crafting and evaluating yung mga inputs at ebidensya na pinepresenta nila and hopefully baka next week we can come up with the third set of cases as far as Porac (the inputs presented by law enforcement and hopefully next week we will file the third set of cases concerning Porac),” he said
“Nakafile na ang dalawa, pangalawa ongoing PI (The other two case were already filed including one that is already undergoing preliminary investigation),” Ocampo noted.
In violating Sec. 3(e) of RA 3019, Ocampo said the respondents caused “undue injury to any party including the government or giving any private party any unwanted benefits, advantage or preference.”
Bulacan Provincial Prosecutor James Escalona, a member of the IACAT team, explained the respondents violated Section 3(f) for not taking action to the law enforcement reports that alleged criminal activities were taking place in Lucky South 99.
“Ito yung may kinalaman sa imbestigasyon ng CIDG at meron ng mga reklamo ng human trafficking at saka ibang illegal acitivities na nangyayari pero hindi naaktuhan ng mga alkalde at mga konsehal (This has something to do with the investigation of the CIDG and complaints of human trafficking and other illegal activities taking place but no action was done by the mayor and the councilors),” Escalona said.
As to violating Section 3(j), San Fernando Assistant City Prosecutor Jose Teodoro Leonardo Santos, a member of the IACAT team, said “napag alaman sa mga dokumento na nagkaroon ng business permit ang Lucky South 99 from 2021 to 2023 kahit na may mga problema sa dokumento sa application (it was discovered from the documents that Lucky South 99 was granted business permits from 2021 to 2023 even though there were problems in the applications).”
“‘Pag tiningnan ‘yung application forms blangko, blangko pero naproseso (The application forms were blank but still got processed),” Santos said.
“Ang primary purpose ng Lucky South ay outsourcing at hindi POGO so labag ito sa kanyang primary and secondady purposes (The primary purpose of Lucky South is outsourcing and not a POGO so this violates its primary and secondary purposes),” he added.