The former president and chief executive officer of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation was added as a respondent with former top officials of the country's gambling regulating body who were charged with graft and corruption before the Office of the Ombudsman involving the malversation of funds amounting to 75 million pesos.
Named as an additional respondent in the charge sheet filed by Joaquin P. Sy, treasurer and chief finance officer of Kamura Highlands Gaming and Holdings Inc., is Alfredo "Fred" Lim, who served as PAGCOR's president and CEO from 2016 to 2022.
Originally charged for malversation public funds were former PAGCOR Chairman of the Board, Andrea Domingo, its former Board Members, Jewel Castro and his parents, Rizalina and Simplicio Castro. Also charged are PAGCOR's present Chairman Alejandro Tengco and Dianne Erica Jogno, Acting Chief of Staff.
The supplemental complaint was filed after information was gathered that it was Lim who was calling the shots at PAGCOR and no transaction could be made without his nod during his term. Lim is a close associate of then President Duterte, while on the other hand, Domingo retained her post as PAGCOR chair as an accommodation to former President Gloria Arroyo, whose position was just symbolic under Lim's watch.
The charges stemmed from the illegal issuance and the release of a Land band Check amounting to P75,000,000 payable to a certain Jewel Castro representing the return of cash performance bond posted by Kamura Gaming and Holdings Corp. after Duterte disbanded the e-sabong operation.
The illegal release of the said cash performance bond to Castro was made during the incumbency of Lim, Domingo, and the old Board, sometime in September 2022 according to Lolita Gonzales, AVP for PAGCOR's Finance Department Special Funds. Newly appointed PAGCOR Chair and COO Alejandro Tengco has also ordered a thorough investigation of the controversies, as he vowed to bring to justice those found to be involved in the case.
On the other hand, police authorities reported that respondent Jewel Castro has been operating clandestine e-sabong operations in strategic provinces using the technology provided by his cohorts in Pagcor after he and two of his associates eluded arrest during a lighting raid recently in their lair in Loac, Pangasinan according to PNP-CIDG Director Maj. Gen. Romeo Caramat said.
However, his parents, Rizalina and Simplicio Castro were cornered and arrested by the PNP-CIDG operatives. Aside from the illegal e-sabong operation, the raid was also conducted to arrest two of Castro's buddies who have been the subject of a warrant of arrest issued by Quezon City RTC Br-77 in connection with the multi-million investment scam.
