Casinos’ complicity in corruption slammed

Senate Committee on Games and Amusement Chairperson Senator Erwin Tulfo on Sunday raised concerns over the role of casinos in the corruption scandal involving Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials in Bulacan, saying gaming establishments turned a “blind eye” to money laundering involving hundreds of millions in stolen public funds.

Tulfo said casinos knowingly allowed dismissed DPWH officials to gamble away taxpayers’ money without raising alarms, despite the huge sums being brought in weekly and the use of fake identities.

“They (casinos) cannot claim ignorance,” Tulfo said in an interview. “They did not know these were government officials or working in DPWH just because they used fake IDs? I thought they strictly implement their ‘Know Your Client’ or KYC policy?” he added.

According to Tulfo, three now-dismissed DPWH personnel from Bulacan’s 1st District used aliases to hide their identities.

Sacked district engineer Henry Alcantara used the name “Joseph Villegas,” assistant district engineer Brice Hernandez went by “Marvin de Guzman,” and project engineer Jaypee Mendoza used “Peejay Asuncion.”

Tulfo argued that casino operators should have flagged the transactions and reported them to the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).

“They didn’t even raise a single red flag or report this to the AMLC, despite these individuals bringing in hundreds of millions in cash to the casino every single week,” he said.

He added that casinos appeared more interested in profit than compliance, choosing silence because the high-stakes betting generated significant revenue.

“If the casinos did their part in monitoring and reporting the transactions, Alcantara, Hernandez and Mendoza would have been apprehended immediately, and their pilfering of public funds could have been stopped,” Tulfo said.

Tulfo said he will file a Senate resolution seeking an investigation into casinos’ failure to comply with anti-money laundering laws.

The resolution seeks to hold gambling establishments accountable for not reporting suspicious transactions, especially those involving government officials.