The National Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday said their agents have arrested an employee of the Philippine Sports Commission for falsifying the payroll register of the athletes and coaches and credited their allowances into his own bank account.
NBI Officer-In-Charge Eric Distor identified the suspect as Paul Michael Ignacio.
Ignacio was presented for inquest proceedings for violation of Article 310 in relation to Article 309 (Qualified Theft) through violation of Article 172 in relation to Article 171 (Falsification of Public Documents), all under the RPC, and for violation of R.A. 10175 (Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012).
Distor said that the case stemmed from a letter sent by PSC seeking assistance for the investigation of suspected fraud committed by a PSC employee. The letter likewise stated that Land Bank of the Philippines sent a letter to OIC Merlita R. Ibay of the PSC regarding the unusual payroll transactions credited to the account of Ignacio.
Distor added that initial investigation conducted by Ibay revealed that Ignacio is a PSC-Personnel Office employee tasked to prepare the payroll for the monthly allowance of qualified coaches and athletes and forward the same to the LBP.
But Ignacio was said to have included the names of unqualified coaches and athletes in the payroll and puts his own payroll account number as the account number of the unqualified coaches and athletes. Based on initial verification, Ignacio has already embezzled P14,448,254.35 from August of 2015 up to May of 2020.
On July 14, 2020, operatives of NBI-Special Action Unit proceeded to the PSC Office to conduct an initial investigation. It was discovered that for the month of June 2020, Ignacio included in the payroll three unqualified coaches and three unqualified athletes with a total amount of P 450,150.00, which was credited to the suspect’s payroll account.
On the same day, with sufficient evidence on hand, NBI-SAU arrested Ignacio in his office at the PSC in Manila. The NBI also seized the laptop and desktop unit of Ignacio issued by the PSC for for forensic examination.
Meanwhile, Deputy Director Vicente de Guzman said the NBI will dig deeper into the payroll mess following a meeting with PSC officer-in-charge Ramon Fernandez at the NBA Headquarters yesterday.
“This is just the start. We will go deeper into the matter,” said De Guzman.
PSC deputy executive director Atty. Guillermo Iroy said the probe will soon be broadened to find out if more accounts and funds have been tampered with.
“Sa ngayon, isa pa lang. We will widen our investigation. We have to assume na may iba,” said Iroy.
The NBI, according to De Guzman, said they are still in the process of identifying which accounts of athletes and coaches were involved. Peter Atencio
“This is a wakeup call to all employees and not just with the PSC,” said Fernandez.
The PSC official added that they will have to check further, which accounts of athletes have been affected.
