Justice office slammed over failure to arrest casino scammers
Thursday August 18, 2011
THE House committee on justice grilled government officials on Wednesday for failing to arrest foreigners involved in a gambling syndicate that was able to pocket some P160-million worth of people’s money.
Three months ago, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) caught gambling syndicates, including a certain Lu Chu Ben carrying the alias of Ben Lui, after they were seen in closed-circuit television cameras using a device that could scan the cards of the dealer.
Pagcor filed syndicated estafa charges against Lui’s group but the Parañaque City Prosecutor’s Office downgraded the charges to simple estafa, allowing the respondents to file bail.
Pagcor has a pending petition before the Department of Justice (DOJ) to review the decision of the city prosecutor.
Amerhassan Paudac, city prosecutor in Paranaque City, explained that the syndicated estafa charges were downgraded in accordance with a presidential decree that states at least five persons should be involved in the act.
“What the complainant Pagcor established is only four persons, the other four were never mentioned, their addresses were never given, their names were never given. How could we prosecute them or issue a subpoena,” Paudac told the committee.
Earlier, DOJ also admitted that the syndicates were able to flee the country despite the issuance of a hold departure order (HDO) against them.
“For me, there is gross negligence on the part of DOJ…ang bilis bilis natin mag-issue (ng HDO) sa mga walang kaso pero ito napabayaan,” House justice committee chairman and Iloilo Representative Niel Tupas Jr. said.
Tupas scolded DOJ officials who were in attendance during the hearing after DOJ’s chief state counsel Ricardo Paras snubbed the committee hearing despite the early invitation sent by the panel. Paras is currently in China with Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.
Both Paras and De Lima, as well as National Bureau of Investigation Director Magtanggol Gatdula, have been called to attend the next hearing of the justice committee set Tuesday next week. A subpoena will be issued against the three if they fail to attend the hearing.
Claro Arellano, prosecutor general of the DOJ, promised before the committee that the agency will fast-track the pending motion for review filed by Pagcor before the arraignment on the suspects scheduled on September.
Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Ricardo David was also grilled during the hearing for putting Lui on the immigration watch list two days after he fled the country.
David explained that while Pagcor immediately sent its request to DOJ to issue an HDO against the syndicates, the Justice department took days to send the request to the BI.
Meanwhile, several lawmakers said there were unverified reports that Lui has been killed in China. (Kathrina Alvarez/Sunnex)
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