Estrada owned Bingo 2-Ball company, Singson testifies

Deposed President Joseph Estrada was the real owner of a company that briefly operated the "Bingo 2-Ball" during his administration, former Ilocos Sur Luis "Chavit" Singson said in Estrada’s corruption trial.

Testifying before the Sandiganbayan yesterday, Singson said Estrada merely used his close associate, suspected illegal gambling boss Charlie "Atong" Ang, as his front in Prominent Venture Corp.

Singson said Estrada once told him when they were still drinking buddies that he was the real owner of Prominent.

In 2000, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) introduced a nationwide lottery called "Bingo 2-Ball" as an alternative to its on-line lottery.

However, Estrada scrapped it in less than a month after critics pointed out that the lottery was similar to jueteng, an illegal but popular numbers game. Some skeptical lawmakers remarked that it was a de facto legalized version of jueteng.

Suspicion over Bingo 2-Ball heightened when a Senate inquiry discovered that Prominent – although hired by the PCSO as its adviser on the lottery – was, in effect, running it.

Under questioning by the defense, Singson said Bingo 2-Ball was introduced as an alternative to jueteng "because it had the semblance of legality."

However, Singson told defense lawyer Prospero Crescini that he could not produce any document to back his claim.

"Former President Estrada used to use his friends as dummies everytime he creates spurious companies. One of them, for example, was Jaime Dichaves," he said, referring to another close Estrada associate.

In his earlier testimony, Singson said Dichaves was used by Estrada to cover his ownership of Fontain Bleau, a company that planned to build a casino in the former Clark US Air Force base outside Angeles City in Pampanga.

Crescini tried to destroy his credibility by trying to make him admit that he pocketed P130 million in state funds and falsified documents to cover it up.

Singson, however, insisted that it was Estrada who pocketed the money and he was ordered to cover it up.

In 1998, the Ilocos Sur government was set to buy 15 tobacco drying equipment from MS International for a total of P170 million, Singson said.

He said only one unit was delivered, however, because Estrada pocketed P130 million of the funds which he – accompanied by Ang – later personally delivered to Estrada at his San Juan residence.

He then falsified receipts stating that 15 units of the equipment were delivered for P170 million.

"What I remember was that these were part of the cover-up as instructed by former President Estrada of the P130 million tobacco excise taxes which he and his family took from me," Singson said.

Singson’s admission of falsifying documents was enough basis to destroy his credibility, Crescini said.

"The prosecution panel is trying to establish that a witness, who admitted falsifying documents, who admits bribing a public official, who admits collecting jueteng money and who bribed a president should not be believed. A testimony by the witness, to be believed, should only be believable," he said.

"He has falsified documents, malversed public money. Do you believe a witness like that? He admits that he and Ang were the ones who took the P130 million. They are merely making Estrada as their fall guy to cover up their crime."

Solicitor General Simeon Marcelo, meanwhile, said Crescini’s long cross-examination of Singson indicated his testimony was strong. Singson has been enduring questioning from Crescini for the past ten days.

"You only cross-exam the witness if their testimony is damaging. They were not able to destroy the testimony of Singson," Marcelo said.