Senate panel sets probe into online gambling

Inquirer file photo/Marianne Bermudez

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate committee on games and amusement will look into the proliferation of online gambling in the country next week.

Panel head Sen. Erwin Tulfo said he intends to launch a probe on August 4 or 5.

“I wanna hear it. Immediately, siguro by next week—Monday, Tuesday, I will conduct a hearing on this matter. I’ll call [the] Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) [and] I’ll call the Department of Finance (DOF),” Tulfo told reporters in a press conference on Wednesday afternoon.

“We want to go on a hearing and invite all the stakeholders–we want to listen to Pagcor and then sa DOF yung representative ng executive branch and siguro isang youth organization, parent organization, school organization, at church organization para lahat,” he added.

The neophyte senator said he, along with other members of the panel, intends to form a solid stance before they ask President Marcos to issue an executive order banning online gambling.

“I believe I can convince all the members because Sen. Raffy (Tulfo)  himself already filed a bill to ban online gambling. And then some of our colleagues, like Sen. Villanueva, filed one as well. So what I’m saying, my point is let us talk amongst ourselves first and we will inform the Senate and then the president,” Tulfo added.

“We need an executive order banning online gambling, but we have to recommend it to the President. Before that I will have to talk to the committee: where do we go from here? We should be on the same page,” he said.

Later at the session hall, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano called on education agencies to speak up against the continued expansion of online gambling in the country, saying the government should not trade children’s futures for gambling revenues.

“Shouldn’t CHED, Tesda, and DepEd weigh in?” Cayetano said.

Cayetano then questioned the silence of key education institutions on the matter, noting the stark contrast between the government’s P50 billion income from gambling and the more than P1 trillion needed to properly fund education.

Before the 19th Congress ended, several  senators—including Juan Miguel Zubiri, Joel Villanueva and Risa Hontiveros—already called on the government to completely ban online gambling in the Philippines, citing the detrimental effects it has on many Filipinos, including youth.

Marcos, meanwhile, failed to tackle the much-awaited topic in his fourth State of the Nation Address, but the Palace earlier disclosed that the chief executive “has been following the situation” of Filipinos who have become addicted to online gambling. /gsg/cb