Why the delayed implementation of PLB?

Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo’s admission that jueteng is rampant in Northern Luzon (Inquirer, 2/13/12) confirms the compelling need to implement the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office’s “Loterya ng Bayan” (PLB) to effectively eliminate this illegal numbers game.

We, in the Movement for Transparency in Lotto and Legal Gaming (MOTLO-LG), cannot find any acceptable reason as to why the marching order of President Aquino to stamp out jueteng at all costs continues to be ignored and defied with impunity.

Secretary Robredo’s claim that some police officials are being bribed to turn a blind eye to jueteng is “serious” and “alarming.” This is a categorical admission of the failure of the Philippine National Police and the PCSO to curb, if not stop, jueteng despite the President’s order to replace the Small Town Lottery (STL) with PLB in a bid to eliminate jueteng for good.

It must be borne in mind that PLB was conceived to replace STL, which was scrapped in February last year after the PCSO found out that STL outlets were being used as fronts for jueteng, which allowed the illegal numbers game’s operators to earn more revenue than the government. The PNP told a Senate body that jueteng made P2.575 billion a month in illegal revenue while STL chalked up only P9.5 billion from February 2006 to August 2010.

PCSO Chair Margie Juico and General Manager Jose Ferdinand Rojas have been reported as saying that the STL cannot just be stopped since its proceeds are being used to pay P4 billion in debts incurred by the agency’s past leadership. They assured that they would implement PLB after their background investigation on franchise applicants shall have been completed, to make sure that jueteng and illegal STL operators are barred from PLB.

But is this really the reason for the delay in the PLB’s implementation? Undoubtedly, the P4-billion debt of the PCSO can easily be wiped out with proceeds from the transparent PLB. Is it true that the delay is being deliberately orchestrated by a powerful bloc involving a relative of a top PCSO official, a Palace executive and gambling lords to give way to unhampered jueteng operations through STL? PCSO officials promised to implement PLB in September last year, but it is already February 2012 and franchise bidders of PLB are still groping in the dark as to when PLB will be implemented.

The rampant jueteng operations in Northern and Central Luzon can only be licked through an honest-to-goodness implementation of the PLB. The delay is unjustifiable, and, at best, only reinforces doubts that gambling lords may have, indeed, given gargantuan sums of money to unscrupulous public officials just to allow them to go on with their nefarious jueteng business. PCSO owes the public convincing answers to these lingering questions.

—EDGAR J. TAMAYO,

lead convenor,

Movement for Transparency

in Lotto and Legal Gaming

(MOTLO-LG), ejtamayo@yahoo.com