ILOILO City – Two separate police operations arrested six illegal gambling suspects yesterday in Iloilo province.
Police said the suspects were displaced bet collectors of Eagle-Crest Gaming and Hold Corp. whose franchise for Small Town Lottery was recently revoked by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).
The first operation was in Barangay Tabucan, Dumangas town. Five suspected bet collectors for the illegal numbers game bookies were caught at around 12:30 p.m.
The following were taken to the Dumangas police station: Tabucan residents Silverio Detablan, 63; Aldrin Detablan, 30; John Jeruta, 40; Arnie Dela Cruz; and Fernando Palma, 56, of Barangay Calao, Dumangas.
Police seized from them P3,550 cash and gambling paraphernalia.
Two hours after, 37-year-old Jessa Dioso of Barangay Cabugao Sur, Santa Barbara, Iloilo was caught soliciting bets for bookies.
Recovered from her were P2,200 cash, a pen and bet slips.
Early this month, PCSO terminated the STL operation of Eagle-Crest for failing to remit its Presumptive Monthly Retail Receipts (PMRR).
PMRR is the amount determined by PCSO as the presumed minimum monthly sales of an authorized agent corporation or STL franchisee. It should be remitted to PCSO every month.
PCSO created STL to counter illegal numbers games.
Just this Feb. 12 at the Senate investigation on the PCSO and STL, PCSO director Sandra Cam claimed Eagle-Crest owner Samuel Aguilar was an illegal gambling operator and was using STL to avoid detection.
She claimed illegal gambling in Iloilo was raking in the bulk of the money and Eagle-Crest was remitting only minuscule STL revenues to the government.
On March 13, Aguilar, 47, was ambushed in Barangay Buyu-an, Tigbauan, Iloilo. He died four days after.
As of this writing, the police have no suspect.
In previous interviews, Aguilar said Eagle-Crest had over 2,000 bet collectors across the province.
He denied being an illegal gambling operator or even an illegal drug trafficker./PN