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Thursday, March 23, 2006
Palace pursues small-town lottery operations
MANILA -- Presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor said Wednesday small town lottery (STL) would be slowly implemented in other parts of the country if the different sectors and stakeholders like the Catholic Church accept and eventually approves it.
Defensor said STL would be pilot-tested in six areas: Laguna, Quezon, Bataan, Occidental Mindoro and in Angeles City in Pampanga and Quezon City.
He said the "experiment" would last for one year and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), which oversees its operations, has started the initial run six months ago.
However, he is not sure when exactly it started and in what areas.
Defensor said the PCSO, during an executive meeting in Malacañang attended by Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno, Sweepstakes Chairman Sergio Valencia and board director Strike Revilla, among others, reported that it had earlier published and bid out the "franchise" for STL's "soft operations."
He said the "corporations" have put up a bond of P10 million to become "agents."
Defensor said the Department of Interior and Local Goverment had been tapped to ensure that there would be no "illegal" STL operation.
He said a crackdown would be launched against illegal STL operations, if there is any.
Other details about the STL would be released by PCSO, said Defensor.
The PCSO came up with STL after receiving a request from the mayors to assist their constituents who have lost their jobs after the government intensified its campaign against the illegal numbers game jueteng.
Defensor said they tried to re-introduce STL, which was initially introduced by PCSO during the Aquino presidency.
Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said they would ensure that the STL would not suffer the same fate as the Bingo-2-Ball during the Estrada administration.
Bunye said they are "meticulously reviewing" the guidelines before a full implementation is made.
"We assure the public and all concerned sectors that this project will be fully transparent in its operational and financial aspects. In the process, we shall also take steps to protect the interest and welfare of the youth," he said.
"We consider this legal numbers game not only as a boon to thousands of collectors who were affected by the massive crackdown on jueteng for the past months, but also as another source of income on the government's pro-poor programs," he added.
Support
Cagayan de Oro Mayor Vicente Emano supports STL as an alternative to local illegal numbers game.
He said opposition to any government-sanctioned gambling, including the establishment of a casino in Cagayan de Oro City, smacks of hypocrisy.
Meanwhile, Cagayan de Oro Archdiocese spokesman Monsigñor Rey Monsanto earlier opposed STL, saying it is still gambling and that the Church could not consent it.
"It is still gambling and it is still the same vicious addiction that corrupts morality and is counterproductive to Filipino families," he said.
Legal or not, Monsanto said, the Church opposes any type of gambling, including the government-run lotto, from which the illegal version of swertres -- a locally popular illegal numbers game -- derives.
But Emano clarified that while he supports STL such a gambling scheme would not eradicate illegal numbers game swertres, which is prevalent in Cagayan de Oro City.
To solve illegal gambling problems, police should launch a relentless campaign against swertres operators and other illegal gambling purveyors, he said.
He also hit the notion that gambling is the major cause of poverty in the country, saying that a cash-strapped government should be blamed to corrupt officials in the bureaucracy.
House Majority Leader Prospero C. Nograles is confident the STL will wipe out the illegal numbers game jueteng.
But Nograles's support for the STL seems not to be shared by Malacañang.
"It will certainly put illegal gambling out. It's the same banana, only this time, its legal and government will get its share," said Nograles.
He said the putting up of the STL is an admission that "the government can lick jueteng so much better."
The STL was pilot-tested in several areas in Metro Manila recently but Malacañang has ordered a stop since it had no prior approval from the Palace. (JMR/Danilo Adorador III/Ben Tesiorna/Sunnex)
(March 23, 2006 issue)
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