{"id":777008961,"date":"2023-09-05T08:11:19","date_gmt":"2023-09-05T11:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777008961"},"modified":"2026-04-22T18:24:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T21:24:06","slug":"pagcor-chairman-and-9-others-charged-with-graft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/pagcor-chairman-and-9-others-charged-with-graft","title":{"rendered":"PAGCOR chairman and 9 others charged with graft"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The case is related to the disappearance of PHP75m in a performance bond posted by an e-sabong firm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Philippines.- The chairman of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (PAGCOR),\u00a0Alejandro Tengco<\/strong>, and nine other people have been charged with graft, qualified theft and the falsification of private and commercial documents before the Office of the Ombudsman.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The others charged include chief of staff Dianne Erica Jogno, former PAGCOR head Andrea Domingo and former board members Gabriel Claudio, Carmen Pedrosa, Reynaldo Concordia and James Patrick Bondoc. The legal action stems from the alleged\u00a0illegal release and disappearance of PHP75m\u00a0in performance bond funds posted by an e-sabong (online cockfighting) firm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The complainant,\u00a0Joaquin Sy<\/strong>, who also serves as the chairman of the board and chief finance officer of\u00a0Kamura Highlands Gaming and Holdings Inc.<\/strong>, asserts that the performance bond funds went missing under questionable circumstances.\u00a0He says he personally posted the bond at PAGCOR’s office in Malate, Manila, through two managers’ cheques drawn from his personal bank accounts with the intention of securing the bond for Kamura’s e-sabong operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, complications arose when e-sabong operations were abruptly halted following an order by then-president Rodrigo Duterte<\/a>. Sy sought withdrawal of the bond but received no response from PAGCOR. Despite several follow-up attempts, he remained without answers until July 10 of the following year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sy was informed that PHP75m had been issued in cheques in favour of another person and had been promptly encashed.\u00a0Sy’s complaint maintains that government accounting procedures dictate the return of performance bonds to the corporation or individual who originally posted them.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the alleged breach of protocol occurred during the tenure of former PAGCOR chief Andrea Domingo and the previous board, Tengco and Jogno are accused of obstruction of justice for “deliberately concealing the crimes and unjustly refusing to respond to the complainant’s letters within the prescribed period (by the law).”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to records,\u00a0Sy acquired majority ownership of Kamura in 2021.\u00a0In February 2022, he was elected treasurer and chairman of the board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See also: <\/strong>Philippines: 1,245 arrested over illegal online cockfighting<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The case is related to the disappearance of PHP75m in a performance bond posted by an e-sabong firm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":26756,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Current and former officials of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (PAGCOR), including Chairman Alejandro Tengco and former head Andrea Domingo, face graft and theft charges over the alleged illegal release and disappearance of a PHP75m performance bond from e-sabong operator Kamura Highlands Gaming and Holdings Inc. This legal action highlights significant governance and regulatory compliance failures within the Philippine iGaming sector, particularly concerning the handling of operator financial guarantees.","focusai_entities":"Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (PAGCOR), Alejandro Tengco, Dianne Erica Jogno, Andrea Domingo, Gabriel Claudio, Carmen Pedrosa, Reynaldo Concordia, James Patrick Bondoc, Kamura Highlands Gaming and Holdings Inc., Joaquin Sy, Rodrigo Duterte, Office of the Ombudsman","focusai_location":"Philippines, Manila, Malate","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"PAGCOR Governance Impact","query":"What specific reforms to PAGCOR's governance frameworks and financial oversight protocols are being considered to prevent future misappropriation of operator performance bonds?"},{"label":"E-sabong Market Future","query":"How will these graft charges against PAGCOR officials impact the potential re-legalization or future regulatory structure for the e-sabong vertical in the Philippines?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[439,16333],"tags":[24019,23911],"class_list":["post-777008961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-e-sabong","tag-gambling-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777008961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777008961"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777008961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777008976,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777008961\/revisions\/777008976"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777008961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777008961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777008961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}