The Quezon City regional Trial Court has sentenced up to 19 years in jail a cashier of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) for malversation, the Office of the Ombudsman announced yesterday.
The Ombudsman said its prosecutors were able to establish that Angelica Fajardo misappropriated portion of the P3 million cash advance granted to her for the payment of sweepstakes and lotto low-tier prizes, including scratch-it prizes.
She was also ordered to pay a fine of P1.8 million.
PCSO Assistant General Manager for Finance Betsy Paruginog said she received two letter-complaints in November 2008 regarding the inability of the prize payment division to pay the winning scratch-it tickets on time.
When confronted by the audit team about the missing funds Fajardo admitted her inability to account for it, even offering to make a partial payment. (Jun Ramirez)