Gambling lords get STL franchises

Interior and Local Government Secretary Ismael Sueno ALBERT ALCAIN/Presidential Photo

To eradicate the illegal numbers game “jueteng,” the government has decided to grant franchises to gambling lords so that they would shift to small-town lottery (STL) instead, Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno said on Sunday.

Sueno said the granting of STL franchises by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office
(PCSO) was part of President Duterte’s efforts to stamp out jueteng and replace it with STL.

“He wants everyone to shift to STL because the government gets a percentage from its earnings. I think [PCSO] earned around P400 million monthly last year from STL,” Sueno said in a radio interview.

“The PCSO was able to find a way to give a franchise to these gambling lords. There should be no more jueteng… only STL,” he said.

Sueno said the monthly government income from STL was expected to rise this year to around P2.2 billion a month.

Sueno said it was from these funds that the President obtained the money to help Filipinos in need of medicine or food.

“Actually, he has already released P1 billion I think either to (the Department of) Health or to DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development) to buy medicines,” he said.

Sueno earlier vowed to fight illegal gambling after reports surfaced that certain individuals were allegedly using his name to collect bribe money from illegal gambling operators.

“I don’t want to receive anything from illegal gambling. So, for the local government units and the Philippine National Police, expect that we will be strict in the implementation of anti-illegal gambling policies,” Sueno said.

He said there should be a stop to the proliferation of illegal gambling if local government units and the PNP work hand in hand with a clear mandate of combating illegal gambling.

“The LGUs and the PNP should be working doubly hard to eradicate illegal gambling, because if they help each other, there is no way it will persist,” Sueno said.

He also released information relating to his statement and admission of being bribed by undisclosed illegal gambling protectors during a Senate hearing for games and amusement early this week.

“Even before I became [Interior] Secretary, someone from Manila was already going to me asking if I want to accept [a bribe]. I said, ‘I don’t want to accept, I don’t even want to entertain you,’” he said.

Sueno said the bribery attempts continued as early as his first week as chief of the Department of the Interior and Local Government but he added that he did not to accept any money.

He said he was stunned when he heard reports that someone collected money “on his behalf.”

“I have asked somebody to investigate on this matter. They say a police officer collects P12 million a month in Central Luzon. Here in Metro Manila, it’s P400,000. That does not include the other regions,” he said.