CLARK FREEPORT – Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno said local government units (LGUs) have the power to approve and cancel the permits of companies operating Small-Town Lottery (STL) in their areas.

This view by Puno contradicted the stand given by the legal chief of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, which owns the STL franchise nationwide.

PCSO’s Larry Patiag told the Inquirer last week that local governments are not authorized to stop STL because it is a national government project being done by the PCSO through Republic Act 1169. That law gives the agency the authority to operate lottery games.

Bishop’s plea

The clarification was sought as Pampanga Auxiliary Bishop Pablo Virgilio David asked Gov. Eddie Panlilio to stop the STL in the province to remove the legal cover of the illegal numbers game “jueteng” and stamp it out for good.

David made the recommendation as he observed that Malacañang and the Philippine National Police were making it harder for anti-gambling advocates to stop jueteng by claiming that it was actually STL that was in place.

In Puno’s view, local governments have a say on the entry and cessation of STL in their areas.

In Pampanga and Angeles City, the STL agencies, Suncove and Lake Tahoe, respectively, have obtained permits from the local governments, he said.

“If you read the procedures, the PCSO confirms [permits] that are granted by the LGU. There is no STL permit that does not begin with the provincial, or city resolution,” he told reporters here.

Asked if the LGUs can stop an STL business in an area when they wish so, Puno said: “Yes, they can cancel the [permit].”

“If they feel like it, they can cancel it. If they suddenly believe they don’t want it anymore,” he added.

Told that the PCSO maintains a different position from his, Puno said: “I’m the secretary of interior and I don’t know who you are talking to the PCSO. I’m telling you the principle here is that it begins with the LGUs. When the LGU disallows it, there’s nothing anybody can do. The PCSO cannot force a local government to continue the STL if the LGU does not want to anymore.”

The gross sales of 22 STL agencies, reaching P4.9 billion from 2006 to 2008, are an indication that the STL was scoring against jueteng, he said.

“What has been done in this process is to legalize what was before illegal and eventually try to bring it into the mainstream. For example, lotto is legal. The STL can be bad when it is used to influence local officials and local police and if there’s local jueteng it can also control local officials and the police. That is what is bad about it,” he said.

“That’s why in the legalization of [jueteng], we put this under the PCSO so that it will be nationalized and the LGUs can get specific shares from the STL proceeds,” he said.

According to Puno, the cooperation of the Department of Interior and Local Government with PCSO on STL is to stop jueteng from competing with its legal counterpart.

He said he acted on the report of Panlilio that jueteng was rampant. But a team he sent to Pampanga saw “valid STL stations.”

Told that lotto stations issue thermal receipts while STL stations do not, he said: “I have no control over the procedures of STL. Theoretically these are supposed to have receipts, collectors with ID cards.”

The non-issuance of receipts, he said, can be a basis for the LGUs to cancel the STL permit.