Advocacy group wants Pagcor cited for contempt

An advocacy group wants the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) cited for contempt for “usurpation of judicial powers.”

In a 14-page petition to the Supreme Court, the Anti-Trapo Movement (ATM) said PAGCOR had claimed that its charter gives them the authority to interpret and implement the law on internet and online gambling.

The group, however, pointed out that nothing in the law expressly mentioned this. Hence, PAGCOR erred in appropriating for itself the authority to “interpret and implement the law;” hence, giving itself the exclusive privilege to “centralize and integrate all game of chance” as defined by Presidential Decree (PD) 1869.

The ATM filed the petition in response to PAGCOR’s comment to their earlier petition seeking to disallow PAGCOR from extending internet gaming franchises to private operators.

The group said the Supreme Court, not a mere government-owned or controlled corporation (GOCC), is the “true agency of the government with the authority to interpret the law.”

ATM’s Leon Estrella Peralta cited as precedent the SC ruling on a case initiated by then Sen. Robert Jaworski rejecting PAGCOR’s erroneous assertion that it can regulate internet or online gambling.

In its comment filed by the Office of Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC), PAGCOR argued, however” that Section 10 of PD 1869 cited jai alai as the only gaming activity expressly excluded from its coverage.

“If it were really the intention of Congress to exclude internet gaming, then it would have expressly included the latter in the exclusion,” PAGCOR stated.

Peralta, however, countered that PAGCOR may be using a “bogus” document purporting to be PD 1869 because the phrase “except jai alai” does not appear in the genuine version of PD 1869 as published in the Official Gazette on Dec. 26, 1983. /ee

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