THE Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) will conduct its own investigation into the complaints filed by former senator Nikki Coseteng against swimming association chief Mark Joseph, former PSC head William Ramirez and top officials of Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor).

PSC chairman Richie Garcia said on Thursday they will be looking for the document that authorized Pagcor to release the fund directly to the Philippine Amateur Swimming Association (Pasa), headed by Joseph, and see if there are irregularities.

“I will do my own investigation here. Right now, from what I see here, there are a lot of inconsistencies and things that should have not happened. We will go deeper into this,” said Garcia.

Coseteng filed graft, corruption and money-laundering charges against Ramirez, Joseph, former Pagcor chairman Efraim Genuino and other Pagcor officials for the alleged illegal use of the P34.323-million fund that Pagcor directly disbursed to Pasa to finance the association’s four-year program leading to the 2012 London Olympics.

Garcia, who was a PSC commissioner in 2007 when the deal was made, said he could not remember if the PSC board ever discussed the issue with Ramirez.

“As far as I’m concerned, it was never brought up in a board meeting. I asked the board secretary to check if there’s any discussion in the minutes of this topic because what I read in the papers, chairman Ramirez’s only involvement here was purely ministerial,” Garcia added.

The law states Pagcor should remit five percent of its gross income to the sports commission.

“Ang nangyari, Pasa got their check directly from Pagcor at nag-liquidate ang Pasa sa Pagcor rather than PSC. Medyo complicated nang kaunti. And I cannot say right now kung nag-liquidate ba ang Pasa o hindi. Or if they liquidate in accordance to the policy of PSC of Pagcor,” said Garcia.

What made things more complicated was that the financial help given by Pagcor to Pasa was used as payment for the use of the facilities at  TRACE College in Laguna, where the national swimmers are training.

Genuino is the chairman of TRACE College.

“Doon nagkagulo at nagkaroon ng malice ang issue. Parang sinasabi ginamit ang Pasa para mapunta ang pera sa TRACE. Will Pasa do the same venture in other training facilities?”

In a previous interview, Joseph denied all the allegations and people in Pasa never benefited or pocketed a single centavo with this tie up with Pagcor. --Joel Orellana