MANILA, Philippines--An operator of bingo card games has accused the Business Permits and License Office (BPLO) of Marikina City of favoring a rival firm by allowing it to operate in a shopping mall without first securing the approval of the city council.

B-7 Amusements Corp. protested BPLO?s grant of a mayor?s permit to Big Shot Bingo Corp. last year, allegedly without requiring the company to apply for authority to operate from the city council, a condition it imposed on B-7 and other losing bidders.

In a Sept. 22 letter to Vice Mayor Marion Andres, the council?s presiding officer, B-7 president Manuel de los Santos Jr. lodged a formal protest against the belated application of Big Shot to apply for a ?Recognition to Operate? from the city council.

De los Santos also requested a public hearing to give the protesting camp a chance to present its position against Big Shot, which is now operating a bingo outlet at SM Marikina.

Sought for comment, a staffer of the Marikina BPLO who requested anonymity said that as far as she knew, Bingo Shot had already secured the necessary permits before it received the go-signal to start operation.

She said it was actually B-7 which failed to present an authorization from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. to operate, unlike Big Shot, a Pagcor franchise, which had been able to do so from the start.

The staffer said SM Marikina awarded Big Shot the contract for the bingo operation precisely because it had met this requirement.

But she said she was not aware how Big Shot had been able to secure a mayor?s permit from the BPLO without first getting an authority to operate from the city council. She noted that the BPLO chief at the time was Santiago Ramos, who she said left the agency in December 2008.

The current BPLO chief, Alfredo Aguilar, said he was not familiar with the case and asked the staffer to answer the Inquirer?s questions for him. The staffer said Ramos was in the best position to answer how the permit had been issued to Big Shot in the first place.