Robredo: LGUs have final say on Loterya; rules say otherwise

CLARK FREEPORT, Philippines—The final say on the operations of Loterya ng Bayan in provinces and highly urbanized or chartered cities belongs to local government units (LGUs), Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo said here on Thursday.

“[Loterya] requires the consent of LGUs before it is operated,” Robredo said, when asked for updates about the national government’s substitute for Small Town Lottery (STL).

However, the implementing rules and regulations (IRR), approved by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PSCO) in February, does not require Loterya agent-corporations to secure local or provincial ordinances or resolutions for their operations.

It was in January when Margarita Juico, PCSO chair, announced the agency’s plan to roll out the new lottery game in place of STL.

STL was launched during the term of the late President Corazon Aquino and revived by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2005 “to eradicate” the illegal numbers racket “jueteng.”

Loterya became the government’s new option after the PCSO fought off a proposal to transfer the management of STL to local governments.

The PCSO is the only agency mandated by law to run state-sanctioned games for charity programs, the agency’s general manager, Jose Ferdinand Rojas, told three Senate committees investigating reports in late 2010 that jueteng had been operating under the guise of STL.

Robredo said the PCSO planned to launch Loterya in July, which is a three-month delay for the timetable set earlier by Juico.

“They’re having some problems with the equipment,” he said to explain the delay. He did not elaborate.

The IRR refers to the use of point-of-sale-terminals, described as “an electronic cash register which records a bet, prints out or creates a corresponding ticket or receipt and transmits the record of the bet to a central data center.”

According to Robredo, Loterya “should be good for LGUs because it would increase their share (of the proceeds).”

The Loterya’s charity fund, which is composed of 30 percent of the game’s net sales receipts, is to be distributed monthly to the LGUs and the Philippine National Police (which is granted a 12.50-percent share), the game’s sales force (which is entitled to a 3.99-percent share) and the PCSO charity fund (which will receive 8.50 percent of the take), according to the IRR.

“The real challenge here is how the Loterya will not be used by jueteng,” Robredo said.

Juico said the PCSO has not yet selected the companies it would authorize to run Loterya.

“The list [of Loterya agent-companies] will be out after 70 days,” Juico told the Inquirer last month.

Last April, Rojas inaugurated 18 houses for employees of the Suncove Corp., PSCO’s agent-corporation in Pampanga. The company has been associated with suspected gambling lord Rodolfo “Bong” Pineda, but Securities and Exchange Commission documents do not support his supposed links.

In a report to the Senate, the police’s intelligence directorate estimated that jueteng raked in P2.6 billion in monthly gross sales, with Pampanga grossing the highest monthly at P300 million.

Rojas reported that STL’s gross receipts reached P9.5 billion from February 2006 to August 2010.