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By Rene Q. Bas, Editor in Chief
The Philippines has become the gambling lords’
paradise. And the richest of these lords, albeit legal and
government-owned, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor),
is about to turn the most beautiful part of Metro Manila into the
Las Vegas of the Orient.
Most of the other gambling lords are operators
of illegal jueteng operations.
These, people and groups that became famous in
the impeachment trial of President Joseph Estrada who was ousted
primarily because he was accused of receiving bribes from jueteng
operators, are also operating some—others say most—of the legal
Small Town Lottery franchises. The Manila Times learned from a
source in the industry.
The STL is granted to qualified
gambling-operators by another government-owned gambling lord, the
Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).
Pagcor is much richer than the PCSO. Pagcor
casinos are all over the National Capital Region and the key cities
of the archipelago. These casino buildings, brightly lit at night,
look like palaces, glittering like small-scale versions of the ones
in Las Vegas, Macau, Singapore and Malaysia.
But Pagcor has begun to build its Entertainment
City—on the very land close to the Philippine Cultural Center and
extending towards Pasay by the sea—which could, if all the
investors do come and none of the usual Filipino contretemps wreck
the project, rival what Macau and Singapore now offer.
The Pagcor and the PCSO are of course the
“goodies” of this country’s burgeoning gambling industry. They
are “goodies” because they do great works of charity—giving to
hospitals, educational institutions, various foundations and every
single charity and medical concern presented to them by governors,
mayors and barangay officials that are favored by Malacańang and by
congressmen and senators who are allies of the President.
They even give generously to charity projects
for the poor run by Roman Catholic Church parishes and bishops.
Yet, they are officially not “goodies” to
the hierarchy of the Church (and to most of the Protestant pastors
too).
The doctrine of the Catholic Church on gambling
is as neutral as her doctrine on alcoholic drinks—especially grape
wine, without which no substance can be miraculously
transubstantiated into the Sacred Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
The doctrine on gambling, as stated in the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, says: “Games of chance [card
games, etc.] or wagers are not in themselves contrary to justice.
They become morally unacceptable when they deprive someone of what
is necessary to provide for his needs and those of others. The
passion for gambling risks being an enslavement. Unfair wagers and
cheating at games constitute grave matter, unless the damage
inflicted is so slight that the one who suffers it cannot reasonably
consider it significant.”
In other words, you can gamble if you are not
doing it as an addiction (an enslavement). And if you do not deprive
your family—or anyone to whom you owe the duty of love and
support—of your time, your attention and your money. It’s all
common sense, really. You can gamble to excess, just as you can
drink to excess and do harm to yourself.
Then you commit grave injustice. And your
gambling addiction might even lead you to steal.
The Catholic bishops see much more than personal
sins related to gambling. They wisely oppose both legal and illegal
gambling because of the harm both forms have been doing to the
Filipinos as a society and to the Filipino character—especially to
the poor in the case of jueteng, masiao and the PCSO’s small town
lottery.
CBCP vs. organized gambling
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the
Philippines (see “What Catholic Church’s doctrine on gambling
says”) has issued a pastoral statement against organized gambling.
The bishops decry the “many attempts . . .
made to legalize all forms of gambling, even as lotto and casinos
are legal. But again for us as Pastors, given the fatal lure of
gambling to the Filipino psyche, the legalization of organized
gambling in order to raise funds, even for development, is a form of
de-moralization—the gradual erosion of moral values necessary to a
development-oriented work ethic, such as diligence and industry,
accountability and transparency.
“The poor and the needy are victimized the
most. They are often the most prone to gambling addiction, as the
deadly attraction of easy and quick riches beckons them to disaster.
Therefore, the legalization and proliferation of gambling
establishments are nothing more than an abject surrender to a
morally debilitating vice.
“For reasons like the above we strongly oppose
organized rampant gambling, be it legal or illegal. Our development
as a people is not merely economic. It has to be more. It must be
moral and spiritual as well. We, therefore, strongly urge that the
investigations now going on against gambling lords be pursued
relentlessly until these are brought to justice and the complicity
of government officials, police, and military officers be brought
out into the open and punished.”
Bishops support Gov. Panlilio
About two-thirds of all the Catholic bishops are
supporting the case Pampanga’s Governor Eddie Panlilio has filed
against perhaps the most celebrated person to be accused of being a
“jueteng lord.” He is Rodolfo “Bong” Pineda, and he and his
wife, are among President Gloria Arroyo’s best friends and
townmates. Mr. Pineda has appeared in Senate hearings and was
mentioned in the impeachment trial of former President Erap Estrada.
But there is a new reality that has not reached
the Philippine public, the same gambling industry source told The
Times. Illegal gambling, especially jueteng, these days is no longer
controlled by civilians. Someone in the Cabinet and his men all over
the country who wield great power over law-enforcement agencies, is
now the boss of bosses.
We in The Times have tried to verify this piece
of information. And if we are told that it is again another nasty
rumor meant to add to the dirt being thrown at the Palace we will
not be surprised.
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