Pagcor chief’s daughter heads BI Clark office

CLARK FREEPORT, Philippines –The Bureau of Immigration (BI) one-stop-shop handling foreign workers, including the undocumented Chinese employees of the Fontana casino here, turns out to be headed by the daughter of Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) chair Andrea Domingo.

Domingo’s daughter Karen Domingo-Gandamra reportedly took over the post only a month ago, replacing former BI Angeles City field office chief Janice Christine de Jesus-Corres.

Corres was reportedly implicated in the formal complaint filed by her staff for alleged irregularities in the approval of working permits and other documents of Chinese workers at Fontana Leisure Parks and Casino, owned by Chinese businessman Jack Lam alias Lam Yin Lok.

President Duterte has ordered the arrest of Lam for bribery and economic sabotage in relation to his alleged illegal online gambling operations in Fontana.

Agents of Pagcor and the Angeles City police shut down last Monday the operations of Fontana Leisure Parks and Casino.

Armed policemen from the Regional Public Safety Battalion have secured the Fontana Convention Center that has served as holding area for over 1,300 Chinese employees of Fontana Parks, who were arrested for allegedly working illegally at the online gambling firm in villas within the resort the other week.

Gandamra could not be contacted yesterday as her staff in her office at Building 2127 of the state-owned Clark Development Corp. (CDC) said she was attending a meeting elsewhere.

Argentina Lacanlale, assistant chief of the BI field office in Angeles City and one of the nine who signed a complaint against Corres in November 2015, said their former boss was assigned to the one-stop-shop at Clark.

“Since then, the jurisdiction over the Chinese at Fontana was removed from our field office,” she said.

The complaint, addressed to then Immigration Commissioner Siegfred Mison, noted that Corres is married to Albert Corres, a Fontana employee in charge of relaying documents of Chinese nationals for processing by the BI office then headed by his wife.

The personnel of Gandamra’s office declined to give any information on the status of the 1,300 Chinese workers now detained in Fontana.

Domingo was among the first appointees of President Duterte after he assumed the presidency. She was also a former BI commissioner.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II recently quoted Domingo as saying that Fontana management had offered her a bribe of one percent of the earnings of the operations of the resort-casino.

The complaint letter filed by employees of the BI Angeles City office that was signed by Lacanlale and co-workers Michael Vincent Dizon, Lailanie Mercado, Marco Dayan, Lyka Marie Aguirre, Myra Santiago, Roderick Rodriguez, Lerma Arbitrario and Romeo Quizon sought the investigation of Corres on the questionable approval of visas issued to Chinese workers in Fontana.

Their complaint said Corres’ husband Albert, who works for Fontana Leisure Estate, sends applications for tourist visa extensions without personal appearance of the foreign applicants and often without sufficient documentary requirements attached to their application forms.

The complaint then noted that Mr. Corres processed for extension at least 100 to 200 Chinese passports almost every week.

“Given such volume, it is highly dubious that all passports are indeed from Chinese nationals entitled to the leniency afforded to Fontana Leisure Estate,” the complainants said.

After they submitted their complaint to Mison, Corres was transferred to the BI one-stop-shop nearer to Fontana at Clark, which was tasked to process the visas of the Chinese employees of Fontana.

“We never had anything to do with the Chinese nationals at Fontana since then,” said Lacanlale.

In a letter dated March 8 to Immigration Commissioner Ronaldo Geron who replaced Mison, Raquel Rosario Marayag – acting director of the Office of the Ombudsman for Luzon – requested for the “status of the said complaint, considering that the same issues were raised at the present complaint.”

The letter cited allegations that Corres is “taking advantage of her official position in the BI Angeles City field office and extending unwarranted benefits, advantage and preference to the clients of her husband who is connected with Fontana Leisure Estate by giving unusual courtesies and leniency to the applications filed on behalf of Fontana Leisure Park and in the grant of tourist visa extension applications of aliens claiming under its name, to the extent of disregarding the requirements and standard operating procedure of the BI.”

Cease and desist

The CDC issued yesterday a cease and desist order against the Fontana Development Corp. (FDC) that operates the Fontana Leisure Estate.

The cease and desist order (CDO), issued by CDC president and chief executive officer Noel Manankil, was to take effect immediately pending results of a probe by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on illegal online gambling operations in Fontana.

“The CDO follows the order from Malacañang on Dec. 3, 2016 to cause the immediate closure and cessation of operations of the Fontana Leisure Park and Casino,” said a statement from the CDC, which manages the free port.

The Malacañang directive, signed by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, ordered the investigation of Fontana’s “illegal or unlicensed gaming operations and employment of aliens without the proper permits in the said premises, in violation of Philippine anti-gambling, labor and immigration laws.”

CDC also suspended the Certificate of Registration and Tax Exemption (CORTE), which is the equivalent of a business or mayor’s permit in the free port.

The CDC said Fontana general manager Dennis Pak received the pertinent documents on the order.

CDC also clarified that it is “not taking over the complex as speculated, and will support the conduct of investigations by DOJ.”

Prosecute ex-CDC execs, DOJ urged

The DOJ was asked yesterday to prosecute former officials of CDC, including now Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, over the illegal online casino operations of Chinese gambling tycoon Lam in Clark, Pampanga.

Transport group Road Users Protection Advocates (RUPA) accused Tugade and other CDC officials of criminal negligence for their failure to stop the illegal operations of the Hong Kong-based trader within their jurisdiction when they were still with the government-owned and controlled corporation.

If possible and upon investigation, the group also urged the DOJ to prosecute the former CDC executives with Lam for alleged economic sabotage.

“We urge the DOJ to include Tugade and other CDC officials as co-respondents in the cases against Jack Lam,” RUPA chair Ray Junia said.

“As a businessman, Lam will really try to maneuver against the government to protect his illegal interests. But Tugade was entrusted with the job of making sure these maneuvers are stopped. Tugade committed the bigger crime, which is betrayal of public trust. Bantay-salakay siya,” he said.

RUPA has been calling for the ouster of Tugade for alleged conflict of interest, incompetence and for failing to at least alleviate the plight of commuters for the past five months. 

The RUPA official said Tugade could not claim that he is innocent or unaware of the illegal activities that happened while he was still head of CDC. – With Edu Punay, Romina Cabrera