IN THE KNOW: Small Town Lottery

THE ADMINISTRATION of President Corazon Aquino launched Small Town Lottery (STL) in 1987, hoping that it would stamp out “jueteng,” an illegal numbers racket. Both involved betting on two-number combinations.

Bets in jueteng involve a pair of numbers from 1 to 37. In STL, the choices are from 1 to 40. Unlike the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO)-run lotto, where draws are televised nationwide, STL draws are done locally.

Because the two games had similar mechanics, STL was used as a front by jueteng operators. A House inquiry following the end of STL operations in 1990 found that franchises for STL had been awarded to the same people behind jueteng.

Despite its failure to eradicate jueteng, STL was revived by the Arroyo administration in 2005. In February 2006, the PCSO launched STL on test-run mode in several areas in Luzon and the Visayas.

In May 2006, then Director General Arturo Lomibao of the Philippine National Police confirmed the resurgence of jueteng operations and blamed it on STL, which, he said, was being used as a front for jueteng.

In the same year, then Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz said, “STL and jueteng have exactly the same victims twice exploited, the poor, the same beneficiaries twice favored, certain local officials and police authorities, and the same gambling lords twice enriched.”

In December 2007, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines issued an “urgent and ardent appeal” to officials and citizens to stop the government-backed numbers racket. But STL continued to operate.

In November 2012, Eduardo Manugue, Pampanga provincial chapter chair of the People Power Volunteers for Reforms, said his group had information that some “cobradores” (bet collectors), in collusion with “cabos,” who supervise the collectors, were not remitting STL collections and instead pocketing the money.

“But when a pair of numbers wagered in STL wins, these cobradores give the prize money to winners. In this scheme, the illegal operation is within the STL system,” he said.

In September 2012, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago disclosed during a Senate inquiry that money from jueteng amounted to P30 billion annually. Santiago said jueteng operated openly in at least six cities in Metro Manila and in nearby provinces.

President Aquino announced at the time that STL would be stopped as the government-sanctioned game failed to stop jueteng. But retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz said that like STL, its replacement, the PCSO’s Loterya ng Bayan (PLB), would be used to cover up jueteng.

Under PCSO Chair Margarita Juico, PLB never took off the ground due to the long process of vetting operators, and the review of the new game’s implementing rules and regulations. Inquirer Research

Sources: Inquirer Archives, pcso.gov.ph