Ramirez wants assets of scammer seized

Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Chair William Ramirez returned to work on Tuesday, and his first order of business was to order the seizure of all personal properties of a PSC employee found last week to have siphoned off some P14 million in a payroll-padding scheme.

Paul Michael Ignacio, a staff at the sport’s agency’s personnel department, ran the fraudulent activity since 2014, and Ramirez has asked the help of the Office of the Solicitor General to have Ignacio’s assets transferred back to the government.

Ramirez, who took a one-month leave to attend to his wife, and his team will meet again on Wednesday in hopes to identify the ill-gotten assets of Ignacio.

“We need all the help we can to get to the bottom of this and make every effort that nothing of this sort ever happens again,” Ramirez said. “We could have used that money in this time of pandemic to help our athletes and coaches.”

The monthly allowances of the athletes and coaches have been cut to half due to the shortage of funds following the stoppage of casino operations nationwide brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. INQ