AN official of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) ordered the arrest of an engineer for allegedly trying to bribe her right inside her office in Mandaluyong City Tuesday morning in exchange for expediting applications of Small Town Lottery (STL) operations,police said yesterday.
Mandaluyong Police chief Col. Hector Grajaldo said PCSO General Manager Royina Marzan-Garma sought assistance from their office after the alleged suspect identified as Ryan Patrick Nepomuceno, 44, single, Civil Engineer/ Professor and resident of No.26 Dahlia St., Sampaguita Village, San Pedro, Laguna was placed under arrest by security personnel of PCSO.
Grajaldo said the incident transpired inside Garma’ s office at the PCSO main office located at the 10th Floor, Suntrust Building, Shaw Boulevard, Bgy. Wack-wack, Mandaluyong City at around 10 :30 am Tuesday.
“Unang nagpunta yung suspect sa office ni GM Garma nitong Lunes ng umaga at nakausap ang secretary ni GM kung saan may dala siyang documents at nag name-drop na sya ng matatas na opisyal ng gobyerno, pero bumalik sya muli ng Tuesday dahil nya gusto personal na makausap si GM,” Grajaldo told Journal Group in a phone interview.
On Tuesday morning, Nepomuceno returned to the PCSO ‘s office and presented a document to Garma indicating a PCSO Request, addressed to Benjamin Diokno and wantimg to have Garma’s signature allegedly as endorsement for the approval of an STL franchise of the company which he was representing.
“Mismo si GM Garma na nakausap nya gusto nya na pumirma si Garma dun sa document na dala nya para umano mapabilis ang proseso sa umano’y STL franchise operations ng kumpanya na kanyang nirerepresenta,” Grajaldo added.
The suspect, according to Police chief claimed that he is connected to a Development Corporation and had allegedly long been applying for a STL franchise with the PCSO.
The man allegedly while inside Garma’s office called somebody on the phone which he claimed was his financier and even name- dropped Sec. Diokno.
While in the middle of their conversation, Nepomuceno handed over an envelope containing P200,000 to Garma to expedite their corporation’s STL franchise.
At this juncture, Garma immediately called security personnel and ordered the suspect to be arrested , Grajaldo added.
Grajaldo said the suspect did not resist arrest.
It was learned that the document which the suspect showed to Garma was not authenticated.
The suspect was brought to the Mandaluyong Police and os facing charges for direct bribery and falsification of public documents.
Garma on Wednesday morning, personally appeared before the Mandaluyong City Prosecutors’ Office to formally file charges against the arrested suspect.
