Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on Monday gave a sermon to officials of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) for operating the small town lottery (STL) even though this has been used as front for illegal gambling operations.
During the games and amusements committee hearing in the House of Representatives, Alvarez said nowhere in the PCSO charter is there a provision allowing the PCSO to operate STL.
Alvarez said Republic Act 1169 or the PCSO Charter only allows the office to “hold and conduct charity sweepstakes races, lotteries, and other similar activities.”
When told by PCSO Legal Department Manager Anna Inciong that the PCSO charter is a special law conferring power on the PCSO to hold charity races, lotteries and other similar activities on a national scale, Alvarez said the office is only using STL operations to justify “jueteng” or the numbers racket.
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READ: PCSO eyes P30B from STL operations in 2017
“Huwag na tayo magbolahan. Naghahanap lang kayo ng justification para sa jueteng. Kaya nga kontrolado yung mga binibigyan niyo ng partnership,” Alvarez said.
(Let’s not fool each other. You’re just looking for a justification for jueteng. That’s why you control those you grant with partnerships.)
Alvarez said the partnership of PCSO with authorized STL agents is illegal.
“We are telling you that what you are doing is illegal. Congress is the one that gave you your Charter. Saka kami na mismo ang nagsasabi sa inyo na mali yung ginagawa niyo dahil yan ay wala sa charter ninyo (We are telling you now that what you’re doing is wrong, because that is not provided in your charter),” Alvarez added.
READ: Hire drug ‘surrenderees’ as STL collectors, minority solons urge
He warned that the PCSO could face charges before the Ombudsman for allowing STL operations.
“Dapat itigil niyo yan unless gusto niyo mahabla sa Ombudsman for doing things that you are not authorized,” Alvarez said.
(You should stop that unless you want to be sued before the Ombudsman for doing things that you are not authorized.)
Alvarez said the PCSO charter only allows for national lotteries, not local lotteries at the provincial level.
“Kaya naging local yan to accommodate and legalize the jueteng operators,” Alvarez said.
(That only became local to accommodate and legalize the jueteng operators.)
For his part, PCSO chairperson Jose Corpuz said the STL operations have been in place when he was appointed to the office.
Corpuz said the PCSO charter needed to be amended to allow the PCSO to conduct more games to raise charity funds.
“This is the mandate of PCSO and the marching order was to generate revenue for government for the use of our people. When we got here, there is already STL,” Corpuz said.
Alvarez urged the PCSO to cancel all STL operations in the country if it does not want to face a complaint before the Ombudsman.
“It would be better if you stop and cancel all the contracts issued to STL. Congress will be the complainant against you in the Ombudsman,” Alvarez said.
Corpuz already faces a graft and ethics breach complaint before the Ombudsman for allegedly restricting new applicants from entering the STL business while benefitting the existing STL licensees.
READ: 8 PCSO officials face complaint over expansion of small-town lottery
STL outlets have been suspected of being a front for illegal gambling. Ironically, the PCSO started STL in 1987 to stamp out “jueteng.” Both involved betting on two-number combinations.
In a previous hearing before the games and amusements committee during the 16th Congress, the National Bureau of Investigation bared procedural lapses in the STL operations in at least seven provinces.
READ: NBI bares procedural lapses in small-town lottery operations
The House committee then learned that these STL outlets do not use the point of sales terminals, a machine used to place bets and to forward the receipts to a central database for sales reporting.
This allowed STL operators to underreport their sales, cheating government of revenues from the lotto.
Instead of using the terminals to collect bets, the STL operators allowed the use of papelitos, or small sheets of paper, for betting instead of PCSO-printed tickets, in violation of the implementing rules and regulations governing the STL.