Let me start with the press release issued by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) on June 29, 2024. It stated that "a former high-ranking government official tried to facilitate the grant of gaming licenses to some of the illegal POGOs that have recently been raided and found engaged in illegal activities."
Please note that in the July 10, 2024 testimony of PAGCOR Chairman Alejandro Tengco before the Senate Committee on Women Children Family Relations and Gender Equality, he never said I intervened for a PAGCOR license.
Instead, Chairman Tengco stated only the truth: I accompanied Cassy Ong of Whirlwind Corporation to PAGCOR on July 26, 2023, to request the possible rescheduling of the arrears payment of Whirlwind’s lessee, Lucky South 99 Incorporated. Allegedly, Lucky South’s former PAGCOR representative, Dennis Cunanan, absconded with the US$500,000 intended payment for the agency.
There was no mention of a license because PAGCOR had just issued the new guidelines on the POGO license renewal (later renamed as Internet Gaming Licensee) in July 2023. Consequently, Whirlwind was only given a copy of the new guidelines.
“Hindi po ako nambraso para sa isang POGO.” I only did my job as a lawyer to Ms. Cassy Ong and Whirlwind.
Beginning February 2024, I communicated five times with Atty. Jessa Mariz Fernandez, PAGCOR’s Head of the Offshore Gaming Licensing Department. She only responded to me three times, two by text message and one via a telephone call. She failed to respond on two occasions.
I asked Ms. Fernandez about the documentary requirements that Lucky South still lacked. I also informed her that the POGO had retained a lawyer to prepare the new Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Prevention Program (MTPP) requirement. In June 2024, I asked her regarding the status of the POGO's license renewal.
It is clear to me that the discrepancy between the PAGCOR PR and the Senate hearing statements of both Chairman Tengco and Atty. Fernandez forms part of a malicious, well-organized, well-funded, and pernicious demolition job to destroy my name and reputation.
Why? Because I am a Maisug who has openly called for the resignation of the President given his refusal to deny or admit the allegation that he is a cocaine addict. PAGCOR’s June 29 press release, which preceded Mr. Tengco’s July 10 Senate testimony, was an obvious demolition job. The statements made by the PAGCOR Chair in the press release differed from his actual Senate testimony. At least 15 media organizations repeated the allegations in the June 29 PR rather than Mr. Tengco’s July 10 testimony.
In short, I did not intercede on behalf of an illegal POGO since Lucky South had a legal license until May 22, 2024. My discussion with the PAGCOR Chairman centered on the rescheduling of Lucky South’s arrears payment.
Whirlwind is also a service provider to Lucky South. What is the importance of being a service provider? Given that POGO operators do not even speak English and require the services of Filipinos to provide all their needs, from the physical infrastructure to liaison with PAGCOR.
As of July 26, 2023, Dennis Cunanan was still the registered representative of Lucky South to PAGCOR. He was an independent contractor who was neither a Lucky South stockholder nor an officer. In fact, it was Chairman Tengco himself who suggested that Ms. Ong replace Mr. Cunanan. Like Cunanan, Ong was not a shareholder or officer of Lucky South.
In August 2023, Whirlwind formally retained me as their lawyer in an ejectment case. I filed a motion to quash a written execution before the Regional Trial Court of Angeles City. The RTC granted the petition. By the end of August, I filed a petition for annulment of judgment with the Court of Appeals. Being Whirlwind Corporate Secretary, Ms. Ong signed the pleading filed in the appellate court.
Again, I never represented Lucky South. I never had any dealings with any officer from Lucky South. Truth be told, I would have wanted to represent Lucky South because the government raid on its Porac, Pampanga property was unconstitutional. The initial search warrant was issued by a judge without jurisdiction in Pampanga. Thus, the Porac did not have a valid search warrant. Even after a search warrant was subsequently issued by a Pampanga judge, the warrant did not specify which of the 49 buildings was subjected to a search. This is constitutionally infirm. In reality, most Chinese POGO operators do not hire lawyers based on who can argue the law best but on who wields the most influence in government. Lucky South would never get the legal services of an arch-critic of a Marcos Jr. administration. As an anti-Marcos activist, I would only make matters worse for their case.
In any case, even if I represented Lucky South, so what? According to the Supreme Court (Yamashita v. Styler) even the most loathsome criminal is entitled to legal representation. The role of the lawyers is to protect the rights of the accused at all times. The right to legal representation forms part of due process.
Likewise, the alleged organizational chart submitted to PAGCOR, which named me as Lucky South’s legal representative, is nothing but a mere scrap of paper. Why?
Under the Senate Rules in Legislative Investigations, the Rules of Court apply suppletorily. This includes proving facts. The document flashed (for 39 minutes) in the July 10 hearing is a private document. Under Section 20 of Rule 132, for a private document to be received as evidence must be proved: by anyone who saw the document executed or written; by evidence of genuineness of the signature or handwriting of the maker; or any other evidence of its due execution. None of these were presented in relation to the alleged organizational chart. In any case, I deny that I authorized the inclusion of my name in the said organizational chart, nor that I caused the preparation of the same.
I could not have facilitated the issuance of a license because, in a political agency such as PAGCOR, you need to be a close ally of the Marcos Jr. administration or a close associate of the First Lady. In 2023, I adopted a critical but issue-based stance against the malpractices of the government. By January 2024, I became an arch-critic after the first Maisug Rally in Davao. There was no way that I could hope to get a license from PAGCOR whose Chairman, according to former Executive Secretary Vic Rodriguez, was personally hand-picked by the First Lady. I would be a bane to a license applicant.