A manufacturing firm implicated in the criminal cases against Japanese gaming tycoon Kazuo Okada has turned the table on the accuser and filed countersuits against a top official of casino operator Tiger Resort Leisure and Entertainment Inc. .
Aruze Philippines Manufacturing Inc., through its president Tetsuya Yokota, has filed perjury charges against TRLEI chief executive advisor Dindo Espeleta over the latter’s alleged “false and malicious” accusations in the estafa case involving the supply of LED strip lights worth $4.5 million for the façade of casino-resort Okada Manila.
In a 16-page complaint filed before the Parañaque City Prosecutor’s Office last June 28, APMI accused Espeleta of three counts of perjury, punishable under the Revised Penal Code with a maximum penalty of two years and four months imprisonment per count.
The company cited as basis for the criminal charge the claims made by the TRLEI executive in the estafa complaint filed against it and Okada in December last year over the allegedly defective lights, which was already dismissed by the prosecutor’s office.
The complainant alleged that Espeleta committed perjury for claiming he was not aware that APMI would not supply the LED strips for the project.
“The e-mail exchanges, where Espeleta was copied, clearly show that he and TRLEI both knew that it would be J&J Philippines Corp. which would supply the LED strips that would form part of APMI’s LED product,” Yokota said in his complaint-affidavit, copy of which was furnished to the media.
Yokota also stressed that Espeleta even replied to the email dated May 20, 2016, where he indicated that he would send the LED specification for J&J’s consideration.
“Espeleta cannot deny his knowledge of the said communications since he was the contact person of J&J in TRLEI as regards the transactions on the LED lights,” read the complaint.
The APMI owner said Espeleta committed another perjury when he made it appear in his estafa complaint that APMI “falsely represented that it would manufacture the LED stripes that it deliver to TRLEI,” when they were sourced from J&J.
“The truth of the matter is that from the beginning, TRLEI was aware that some components of the LED products would be sourced from corporations other than APMI,” said Yokota, adding the Supply Agreement between the two companies indicated that APMI will only “supply the LED lights,” and not manufacture them entirely.
For the third count, the complainant cited Espeleta’s claim that APMI was not authorized to engage in the business of manufacturing LED strips for outdoor use.
According to Yokota, the APMI’s amended Articles of Incorporation indicated the company could perform acts which promote its interest and make profitable any of its rights or properties.
The APMI executive pointed out that even the Philippine Economic Zone Authority even issued a Letter of Authority, allowing APMI to sell LED with accessory-aluminum extrusion and controller to TRLEI.
The estafa case filed by TRLEI against Okada and APMI involved the supply of LED.
The supply contract was allegedly given to APMI upon insistence of Okada, in conspiracy with his close associate, Kengo Takeda, who was the former chief technology officer of TRLEI.
The estafa cases against Okada and several others are now pending before the Department of Justice after Parañaque City Prosecutor Amerhassan C. Paudac dismissed the complaints.
Earlier, TRLEI asked the DoJ to indict Okada on the charges, saying the dismissal of the complaints and the premature release or leakage to his camp of the resolutions that junked the charges violated its constitutional right to due process.
TRLEI complained that the pertinent portions of the resolutions issued by Paudac had been leaked and found their way to the social media accounts of Okada’s Korean girlfriend, Chloe Kim, on May 18.
TRLEI said it was only on May 30 or almost two weeks after Kim had posted the dispositive portions of the resolutions on social media that it received copies of resolutions signed by Paudac.
“The premature leakage, followed by the apparent ‘rush to release’ the assailed resolutions, coupled with the wrongful dispositions and resolution of these cases, are indicative of Paudac’s feared undue interest in the instant cases and which not only violate due process… but are grave administrative offenses,” TRLEI said in its motions.
It stressed that the leakage “not only violated pertinent laws on public officers but also seriously damaged the credibility, independence, and integrity of the assailed resolutions as well as of the OCP-Parañaque and, ultimately, City Prosecutor Paudac.”
“With due respect, the leaked assailed resolution(s) itself is the smoking gun that something irregular happened in the Office of the City Prosecutor of Parañaque City, headed by Paudac,” it lamented.
The controversy prompted Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra to order the National Bureau of Investigation to probe the circumstances surrounding the premature release or leakage of Paudac’s two resolutions.
Guevarra had said “premature disclosure of orders and resolutions prior to official release is not allowed unless there are compelling reasons that would sufficiently justify the same.”