Editorial: Stop all the clocks

Editorial Cartoon by John Gilbert Manantan
Editorial Cartoon by John Gilbert Manantan

MAJOR cleansing entails a bit of sacrifice. Our friends may have to keep that budget share for lotto betting while government shuts down gaming operations of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO). It is marred with a whole network of corruption involving courts, franchisees, local government executives and policemen.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said, “When the regular jueteng collections of at least P200 million a day or P73 billion a year in the NCR, CAR and Regions 1 to 5 alone translate to a mere P4 billion income for the PCSO from Small Town Lottery (STL) operations, a big chunk of which is not even in cash remittances but recorded as collectibles, we do not need an Albert Einstein to figure out how much goes to the individual pockets of STL franchise holders, corrupt politicians, policemen and PCSO officials.”

The senator said illegal jueteng masks itself as legitimate small time lottery (STL) operations and their “kubradors” (collectors) even use PCSO identification cards to avoid arrests, although some policemen may have been involved as well.

It should be telling enough that President Rodrigo Duterte had sacked Alexander Balutan as the PCSO general manager over alleged corruption and installed former Cebu City Police Office Chief Royina Garma into the post. The agency needed some intense policing, although Balutan himself was a retired Marine major general who was appointed to the PCSO in 2016.

So more than 20,000 PCSO-licensed gaming outlets nationwide are now closed. The habitual bettors may have fallen into suspended animation, and so with the rest of the employees at the gaming outlets. But, yes, there has to be no movement until investigators get a clear view of this “massive corruption.”

Meanwhile, Lacson is also pushing for a probe on Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duquee III whose family-owned Doctors Pharmaceuticals Inc. (DPI) earned millions of pesos from a good number of contracts with the DOH over medical supplies.

The senator said two of DPI’s supply contracts lasted until October 2017 when Duque was reappointed to the DOH. He was health secretary during the term of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

But Duque said he had no hand in the DPI contracts from April to October of 2017 since he only assumed his post on Nov. 6, 2017.

Lacson, meanwhile, said he is merely taking his cue from the recent State of the Nation Address, in which the President encouraged citizens to help fight corruption.

Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said the PCSO investigation will be swift. We also hope the Palace doesn’t turn a blind eye on the DOH, on Duque’s alleged breach of the law prohibiting conflict of interest among public officials.

By all means, in fact, investigate corruption in all government agencies. Even if it entails stopping the clocks.

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