MANILA, Philippines – Former Cavite Governor Erineo Malikisi is the new chairman of the board of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PSCO), Malacañang announced on Monday, April 20.

“According to the Office of the Executive Secretary, the President signed last Friday, 17 April 2015, the appointment of Erineo S. Maliksi as member of the Board of Directors of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) and nominated him as Chairman of the Board,” Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr said in a statement.

In a letter to PCSO Acting Chairman Jose Ferdinand Rojas II, Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa said Maliksi’s appointment is “for the unexpired term of office that began on 01 July 2014 and will end on 30 June 2015, vice Margarita P Juico.”

A separate letter – also to Rojas, from Ochoa – said, “I am pleased to inform you that the President has approved the nomination of Mr Erineo S Maliksi as Chairman of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PSCO).”

Maliksi’s appointment comes almost a year since the resignation of former PCSO chair Juico in May 2014.

It is also made a year before the 2016 elections, when the ruling Liberal Party is perceived to have an unpopular presidential bet and wants to retake the governorship of Cavite. Maliksi is vice president for Luzon of LP’s national political council; he lost in 2013.

Back then, Coloma did not give any details on the reason behind Juico’s resignation. According to a Rappler source close to Juico, she quit for a “combination of reasons,” among them the reported pronouncements made by a defeated Liberal Party (LP) bet to PSCO staffers that he had been promised the position.

Maliksi lost the 2013 gubernatorial elections to Juanito Victor Remulla, despite the backing and endorsement of President Benigno Aquino III.

Graft charges

Maliksi, a known ally of the President, is not without controversy.

Last November, the Office of the Ombudsman said it was set to file graft charges against Maliksi for purchasing medicines without public bidding and favoring a supplier in the process during his term as governor. The contract involved PCSO funds.

The joint resolution by the Office of the Ombudsman stated that the provincial government of Cavite during Maliksi’s time entered into a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the PCSO in February 2013. It involved a P10-million grant for the purchase of medicines. The first tranche, in the amount of P2.5 million, was released on February 4, 2003.

Ombudsman investigators found that Maliksi made the procurement even 3 months before the first tranche from PCSO came, and the contract was awarded to a preferred supplier, Allied Pharmaceutical Laboratories Incorporated, without public bidding.

But in February this year, the Sandiganbayan Second Division dismissed the case due to “inordinate delays.”

This was not the first time a case against Maliksi was dismissed.

The biggest complaint made against Maliksi also before the Ombudsman was that he allegedly misspent the P500 million that the Light Rail Transit Administration (LRTA) released when he was governor for the relocation of 2,000 families that would be affected by the construction of the LRT extension from Pasay City to Cavite.

Maliksi’s administration spent all the funds but relocated only 180 families.

Shortly after Aquino endorsed Maliksi as the LP’s gubernatorial bet in Cavite, the LRTA cleared Maliksi of any liability in the use of the said fund. – Rappler.com