OFFICIALS of the country’s three biggest horseowners’ groups yesterday said they were looking into possible violation of Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act by Philippine Racing Commission chair Angel Castaño Jr. and six commissioners of the agency.
Eric Tagle, president of the Metropolitan Association of Race Horse Owners (Marho), said he and his counterparts at the Philtobo and Klub Don Juan de Manila had received “very reliable information” that Castaño and the commissioners may have used the “unclaimed dividends” in the country’s three race tracks.
“We have received very reliable information the Philracom has used unclaimed dividends to make donations to various organizations,” said Tagle. “That constitutes corruption.”
But Castaño, in a telephone interview with the Inquirer, branded the accusations as a demolition job on his person and the agency, claiming that the Philracom is allowed by law to make such donations to charitable institutions “which the horseowners themselves have approved in the past.”
“That’s true, we make donations to charitable institutions as stipulated in Presidential Decree No. 420,” Castaño said. “But all of those donations have receipts and those donations are approved by them (horse owners) because of a safeguard I created on June 27, 2012.”
That safeguard, Castaño said, was the approval for every donation coming from the unclaimed dividends from the major players in the industry, including the racing clubs, trainers, jockeys and the three groups of racehorse owners.
“I am puzzled why they are accusing us of illegally disbursing the unclaimed dividends,” Castaño said. “The Philracom doesn’t even have access to that.”