Answer to Cruz’s column found in Aug. 4 open letter

I refer to Neal Cruz’s August 5 column wherein he made me appear a liar.

It is unfortunate that only the day before (Aug. 4), I had a paid ad open letter (“Let me answer back”) published on Page 14 of the Inquirer. The letter explained point by point how the lotto in the country evolved. Doesn’t Cruz read the Inquirer?

Without being repetitious, I urge him to please read my open letter and hopefully he would get enlightened. Everything I said in it is the truth; or I would have not spoken out.

I appeal to Cruz, for once in the twilight of his life, I am hoping that he would at least rectify the lies he wrote against me in his column.

Let me reiterate that I did not “implicate former President Fidel V. Ramos” who appointed me, neither did I implicate former presidential legal counsels Renato Corona and Antonio Carpio “now chief justice and associate justice.” I simply stated a fact.

Cruz should not presume to know what he did not witness first hand.

He said that “Morato knows that the PCSO board is independent.”

You better believe it, Neal: The PCSO is under the Office of the President. It is not “independent.” The PCSO is under the supervision and control of the Office of the President, like it or not.

I did not bring the lotto to the Philippines. It was my predecessor, then PCSO chair Mamita Pardo de Tavera, together with then director Margie Juico, who conducted the international bidding in 1992/93. I was appointed by President Ramos as PCSO chair in 1994. I only inherited the cases filed against it by former Sen. Jovito Salonga of Kilosbayan in the Supreme Court; and won them in 1995.

What “STL” is Cruz talking about? I never got involved in it. Doesn’t he read my column in Peoples Journal? “STL” is not lotto. It’s jueteng. It’s PCSO Chairman Juico now who is propagating it under a new name, Loterya ng Bayan. Cruz should ask her. He shouldn’t point at me.

Ingat lang, Neal. If you continue to lie in your column, you might find it difficult to get to heaven. Or end up reading your own column—alone!

—MANOLING MORATO, mlmorato@yahoo.com