Jittery solon was not even there
The name on top is Ramon ‘Tats’ Suzara, listed as chairman and president, with chief financial officer Dexter Estacio and corporate secretary John Lester Buenconsejo rounding out the top trio.
Daily TribuneThe name on top is Ramon ‘Tats’ Suzara, listed as chairman and president, with chief financial officer Dexter Estacio and corporate secretary John Lester Buenconsejo rounding out the top trio.
Look for a prominent senator’s name on a paper, the kind filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which would actually mean something in a courtroom.
But nobody can find it. That’s the whole story.
You won’t find it. Yet, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano openly chaired the Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee (Phisgoc) from 2017 through his stint as House Speaker in 2019 and 2020.
Phisgoc’s General Information Sheet (GIS), the document that a corporation files with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), doesn’t list him.
The name on top is Ramon “Tats” Suzara, listed as chairman and president, with chief financial officer Dexter Estacio and corporate secretary John Lester Buenconsejo rounding out the top trio. Suzara, for what it’s worth, used to be Cayetano’s PE (physical education) teacher.
National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Melvin Matibag said two separate financial allocations will be the subject of a probe.
The first pile, roughly P10 billion, was tied to the SEA Games sports complex in New Clark City, allegedly paid to a Malaysian contractor through insertions in the General Appropriations Act, without a public bidding. That case was dismissed once already by the Ombudsman. It’s being reopened now, alongside the NBI’s inquiry.
Also targeted for probe is roughly P2 billion to P3.7 billion in government funds from the Philippine Sports Commission and Philippine Olympic Committee, routed through Phisgoc, a private foundation, to actually run the 21-day Games, which would have covered catering, transport, venue rentals, airfare and consultancy.
Simultaneously, Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla announced his office has reopened its 2021 case files to evaluate potential legal violations in the hosting of the landmark event.
Government money is supposed to pass through the Commission on Audit. This didn’t. Nobody’s produced a liquidation report.
Under the Corporation Code, you can’t chair a board you’re not on. So either the GIS, filed under oath, was wrong, which made the officials liable for perjury, or it was right and someone else was fronting for the chairman, which makes the impostor liable under the Anti-Dummy Law.
Matibag said that Suzara, Estacio, and Buenconsejo are being summoned to explain, with subpoenas going out Monday and an appearance date set for Friday, 24 July.
The NBI chief said the biggest surprise in the looming probe was Cayetano’s reaction, as if he were under attack. He accused Matibag of trying to intimidate him, as a senator-judge sitting in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, days before Matibag himself is scheduled to testify as a witness.
Senators Pia Cayetano and Robin Padilla joined the pushback, arguing that the timing of the investigation threatened the “integrity of the court.” Malacañang and the Department of Justice, however, defended the NBI, maintaining that the probe will be evidence-driven rather than political theater.
Curiously, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano reacted sharply even though, as Matibag pointed out, his name does not appear in the records of the non-government organization that managed the hosting of the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.
Matibag merely said that former Phisgoc officials are being invited to shed light on how the organizing committee operated and how the public and private funds were spent. An invitation to explain is not a finding of liability.
As for the timing, the better question is: If there are legitimate issues to investigate, when would be the best time?
Better now than never, we say.