Case after case,
after case

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

It seemed to be an unkindly cut, the act of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation to file another graft case against its former chairman, Efraim Genuino, right on his birthday, a day he was expected to celebrate with his family and friends.Instead, his former office, where he had been lording over supposedly unlimited amounts that were at his disposal, had chosen to present him with another charge, one of a series, this time accusing him of using PAGCOR funds for something very much outside the purposes covered by the agency.According to the charge, Genuino had used funds of PAGCOR, and not only that, also foodstuff donated by another country, for the election campaign of his sons in the 2010 election. Among the evidences presented by his accuser were some of the sacks that had held rice donated by the Japanese for the victims of Typhoon Frank that had hit the country before the election.It is said that there are some sins that call to heaven for vengeance, and if the charges against the former PAGCOR head are true, then this is definitely one of them. The rice, and the funds were supposed to go to the victims, the poor people who lost their homes, and suffered from the effects of the typhoon, and whose plight had touched a foreign entity to send help, and yet this help was given late, and for a different intention, at that.The former PAGCOR chairman had better be prepared to convince the courts that these charges are not true, because if they are, then we are not only seeing an injustice to the poor victims, but also a blot on the reputation of our country as far as the international community is concerned.*