MANILA—Close to P3.4 million from the funds of the Philippine Football Federation remained unaccounted for based on the fund releases from September 2009 to June 2010, an audit of the federation’s books revealed recently.
The audit was requested by the PFF Board of Governors after PFF president Jose Mari Martinez added Henry Tsai as a signatory to the checks of the federation without the approval of the board late last year.
Martinez is already facing two counts of falsification of public documents for submitting the PFF secretary’s certificates to banks showing that Tsai had been approved as a signatory for the accounts.
In a recent interview with the Inquirer, Martinez said the PFF has since broken its ties with Tsai for his failure to deliver his commitments to the federation.
A copy of the audit obtained by the Inquirer showed that Martinez had entrusted Tsai with P5.5 million, but only P2.1 million, which was advanced by Tsai to augment the PFF’s operational expenses, have been liquidated.
Martinez said P3 million was also given to Tsai for “safekeeping.”
But PFF Board of Governor and Iloilo FA president Mariano “Nonong” Araneta said Tsai is even claiming that it’s the PFF who owes him money.
Even as he denied misappropriating funds of the PFF, Martinez said his only mistake was trusting Tsai, a businessman involved in shipping.
“I didn’t even accept a P25-million bribe during the AFC (Asian Football Confederation) elections, how much more than take one or two million from the PFF,” said Martinez.
Martinez said he’d rather have his term remembered as the most active in terms of participation in international tournaments and strong linkages with the AFC and other national football associations including Chinese-Taipei.
But Araneta also pointed out the excessive spending of Martinez.
Araneta said Martinez was only alloted P250,000 a year for his expenses. But the audit showed that Martinez has already spent P1.4 million for the first 10 months of the year alone, inlcuding P162,789 for his medical expenses.
“We want to recover the money because it should be for Philippine football,” said Araneta. “We are protecting the interest of the PFF.”
However, Araneta’s group in the PFF was not able to muster enough votes to have Martinez’s impeachment discussed in the PFF congress late this month.
“What’s important is we are able to present this to the PFF congress and let them decide,” added Araneta.
The PFF is one of the richest sports associations in the country receiving a $250,000 aid from the Federacion Football Internationale (Fifa) and funding from the Asian Football Confederation and the Asean Football Federation.
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