While the state-owned Clark Development Corp. (CDC) has lifted its order suspending the operation of the Fontana, some 2,000 workers have yet to be summoned to go back to work.
This, even as the workers, in a statement, defended Fontana manager Jack Lam from direct involvement in illegal online gambling operations which led to the closure of Fontana.
“Marami pong natulungan si Mr. Lam (Many of us have been helped by Mr. Lam). He knew that his operations were legitimate and in conformity with government standards,” the statement said.
The workers urged Duterte to “punish those who have sinned against the law, but please spare the innocent workers. We need our jobs back. We need to provide for our families, we need to survive.”
The statement noted that last Dec. 23, the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) fi led cases against Lam and four others for allegedly circumventing the maximum of 40 percent foreign requirement for businesses in the Philippines.
The workers said that among those accused was a former top executive of Transglobal Airways.
They noted that in October, 2006, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCor) had filed a case against the Transglobal Airways executive for alleged illegal online gambling operations in the vicinity of the Clark airport.
The workers urged authorities to check reports that apparently only the executive was involved in online gambling operations which were recently raided in a facility secluded from the main casino at Fontana.
At the same time, the workers said that while the closure was lifted, Fontana has not yet fully operated and that they expect full operations only after the management has settled its tax obligations with the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).
They urged the government to speed up details requirements to be complied with by Lam so that operations of Fontana could resume soonest.
The CDC lifted the suspension of Fontana before the Christmas holidays, but workers who reported to work but operations still at standstill.
Government agents raided an online gambling facility in Fontana in November last year and arrested over 1,300 Chinese nationals working there. Half of the Chinese were found to lack proper immigration documents.
Pres. Duterte later ordered the arrest of Lam whom he accused of bribery and economic sabotage. The alleged bribery was supposed to be for the released of the detained Chinese and was coursed through Lam’s lawyer for two deputy commissioners of the Bureau of Immigration. Lam, however, had already fl ed to Macau by then.
Later, Duterte said Lam could resume operations in Fontana only after paying the right taxes.
