PSC files estafa charges vs wushu exec Camacho

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) on Monday charged former Wushu Federation Philippines (WFP) president Julian Camacho with eight counts of estafa for allegedly collecting money on behalf of the national team’s Chinese coach. The case was filed with the Manila Regional Trial Court and was received by assistant prosecutor Adeliza Magno Quingoyon with Camacho accused of collecting P441,190 from the PSC supposedly for the service of coach Ling Bao Yu from February to September 2008. However, the commission said it discovered that Yu had already left for China last January 18, 2008 and based on a certification from the Bureau of Immigration, had never returned to the country since. “I’m bound by my principle that no man is above the law. It pains me to charge a fellow Fil-Chinese in court but I’m just doing my job," PSC chairman Harry Angping said in a press conference Monday afternoon. When contacted for comment, Camacho said he is “ready to face the charge since he is innocent of the accusation." Camacho, who is now the WFP secretary general, added that he is preparing documents to prove his innocence and will present them on Tuesday. But Angping insisted that Camacho, who’s also the treasurer of the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC), acted in bad faith when he executed affidavits to collect money for Yu. “On February 20, Mr. Camacho executed an affidavit to collect the assistance to the Chinese coach and that continued until September. It is very clear that there is bad faith in his action and I believe he has broken the law," he said. Prior to the charge, Camacho and Angping had an earlier run-in when the PSC chairman padlocked the WFP office at the National Training Center inside the PSC-owned Rizal Memorial Sports Complex. The PSC chief had ordered that WFP office locked pending the resolution of the association’s leadership dispute. Two groups are currently contesting the WFP leadership, Camacho’s group led by Tan She Ling, and that of former vice president Alvin Tai Lian. Angping, however, reiterated that this estafa case has nothing to do with WFP politics and that what he has done is part of his job as chairman of the PSC. And so as not to encounter a similar problem again in the future, Angping said that he is planning to ask all foreign coaches to collect their money personally from the PSC cashier’s office instead of the usual ATM cards. – GMANews.TV