BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan asked the Philippine Amusement Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) to cancel the electronic bingo permit the State-run gaming corporation issued to Mr. Rafael A. Tabora to operate an e-bingo outlet along Marcos Highway on the ground that Vice Mayor Edison R. Bilog and some members of the city councilors, namely, Councilor Faustino A. Olowan and Joel Alangsab, who had signed the resolution of endorsement to the e-bingo operation, are now claiming that their signatures are not their own and therefore forged.
In a letter to PAGCOR Chairman Cristino Naguiyat, Jr., Mayor Domogan explained his subsequent endorsement expressing no objection to Mr. Tabor’s application for electronic bingo permit in the city, provided that their outlets are not within areas prohibited by law, had been based on the unnumbered resolution signed by at least ten members of the city council and since these councilors had claimed that their signatures are not theirs, then “it appears that our endorsement has no more basis to stand.”
“We respectfully pray for your appropriate and favourable action on the matter,” Domogan told Naguiyat in his letter.
Earlier, Bilog and some members of the city council seemed to be “washing their hands”after the unnumbered resolution dated 25 March 2015 was uncovered and made known to the public.
He claimed the stroke of his signature appearing on the resolution was not similar to the stroke of his signature appearing on city council documents.
“I could not remember signing it. In fact, even in the letter of Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan to PAGCOR Chairman Cristino Naguiyat, Jr. dated 14 April 2014, he did not include me as part of the signatories to the resolution,” Bilog stressed.
He pointed out the unnumbered resolution dated 25 March 2014 which falls on a Tuesday, instead of a Monday that is the council’s regular session day, has no force and effect and that ‘it is a mere scrap of paper, a mere proposed resolution and that it should not have been used by anybody.
Bilog cited plans of investigating the same so as to avoid any repeat of such incident in the future.
After informing this writer that he was not aware of signing the resolution, councilor Faustino Olowan now claims that his signature appearing on the resolution was forged by somebody which he will not divulge for personal reasons.
Domogan cited while awaiting for the cancellation to be issued by PAGCOR, he will not renew the business permit issued by the city government to Mr. Tabora’s e-bingo operations anchored on a permit issued by the State-run gaming corporation when the same will expire by May this year.
For the past several years, the city council had been passing a number of resolutions strongly opposing the operation of all forms of gambling in the city and tasked the Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) to conduct all-out operations against all forms of gambling that proliferate in the city and to submit their periodic reports relative to the operations they were able to conduct but it seems nothing has been done about it.
