ILLEGAL gambling operators and their local government protectors are out to discredit the Small Town Lottery (STL) program of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), but the state agency will not allow them to succeed.
PCSO General Manager Alexander Balutan said that despite efforts to dismantle the STL, the agency would continue to expand the program and hike earnings for the benefit of the public.
“This is the challenge we have to face, and we expect the efforts to discredit STL to strengthen further,” Balutan said in a roundtable discussion with The Manila Times editors and reporters on Thursday.
Congress is investigating the PCSO over its alleged “lavish” Christmas Party in 2017 and supposed irregularities in the STL operation.
Former “jueteng” whistleblower and now PCSO board member Sandra Cam had criticized the officials of the PCSO for spending P10 million on a Christmas Party held at Edsa Shangri-La Hotel.
Balutan denied spending such amount of money and noted that the actual budget was only about P6 million, and half of the amount was spent on food and the venue.
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Ray Villafuerte, who has been very active in attending the Senate games and amusement committee hearing on the PCSO, accused the agency of allowing big-time gambling lords to corner the STL by using dummies.
He particularly cited Evenchance Gaming Corp. authorized by the PCSO to operate STL in Camarines Sur, which was supposedly owned by gambling operator Rodolfo “Bong” Pineda.
The PCSO however has terminated the contract of Evenchance for violating its regulations, Balutan said.
P1.7B a month
The STL was introduced by the PCSO in 2006 as part of the government campaign to eradicate illegal numbers games.
But the initial implementation was not successful in curbing illegal gambling, as it provided operators a legal front for their illegal numbers games.
Balutan said it was only during the term of President Rodrigo Duterte that serious focus was given on the STL. Implementing rules and regulations were issued to defeat all existing illegal numbers games in the country like “jueteng,” “swertres,” “last-two” and “masiao,” he said.
From P20 million to P25 million in daily STL revenues from 18 provinces in the past years, the new management of the PCSO was able to raise the take to P1.7 billion a month, Balutan said.
This was because of rules in the computation of the presumptive monthly retail receipts or PMRR, the amount
STL operators or Authorized Agent Corporations (AAC) are required to remit to the PCSO. It is determined by the size of the population of a particular province where they are operating.
From 18 AACs, the number of operators rose to 56 in 2016 and 83 in 2017, Balutan said.
“We were able to break the monopoly of gambling lords and allowed corporations to join the STL,” he said.
300K jobs
Because of the success of the STL, the income of jueteng and other illegal numbers games, as well as bribes to local officials tolerating them, have been affected, the former Marine general said.
He said illegal gambling had been a source of funds for some local officials and other law enforcement officers, especially during election season.
“Now that some gambling operators have decided to go legal and invest on STL and agreed to help government fight jueteng, the source is now gone,” Balutan explained.
The PCSO general manager cited the case of Quezon province that used to serve as haven for several jueteng operators. When the PCSO awarded the STL operation to a qualified AAC, illegal gambling operations started to decline.
“So from illegal numbers game they migrated to legal and now according to our assessment there is no more illegal gambling sa Quezon,” he added.
Apart from eradicating illegal gambling, STL has also generated legal jobs for some 300,000 former jueteng workers.
Balutan said the PCSO had expected the attacks from gambling lords and some local officials because they had benefited from illegal gambling and would lose heavily because of STL.
“This is a battle of nerve and morals. I will not allow anybody to destroy PCSO,” he said.