ILOILO City – The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) terminated Small Town Lottery (STL) operations in Iloilo province. What will happen to the thousands of displaced bet collectors?
STL franchisee Eagle-Crest Gaming and Holding Corp. failed to pay its Presumptive Monthly Retail Receipts (PMRR), according to Manuel Fraginal, chief of PCSO’s National Inter-Branch Security Monitoring.
He then warned displaced STL bet collectors of Eagle-Crest not to return to working for illegal gambling operators.
PCSO created STL to counter illegal numbers games.
According to Fraginal, PCSO would soon award an STL franchise to another operator and the services of Eagle-Crest’s bet collectors would again be needed.
ARREARS
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.
Fraginal declined to divulge how much PMRR arrears Eagle-Crest exactly incurred but said it reached millions of pesos.
“Ang PMRR ay obligasyon nila sa gobyerno. Milyon ang usapan dito,” he said in a phone interview.
PCSO imposed the PMRR requirement to ensure that STL operators would not be able to cheat the government on their sales and revenues.
Under Article IX, Section 36 of PCSO’s 2016 revised implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for STL, it is the PCSO’s Board of Directors that determines the PMRR of a particular area. It must take into consideration, among others, the area’s location, population, national and local economic and growth targets and activities.
FRONT FOR ILLEGAL GAMBLING?
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 and lamented that he was being unfairly dragged in the conflict between Cam and PCSO general manager Alexander Balutan.
Cam claimed Aguilar was a friend of Balutan.
She further alleged that Aguilar used to work in the New Bilibid Prison, was able to establish business links with high-profile drug convicts there, was the major supplier of slain drug lord Melvin Odicta Sr., and was close to dismissed Iloilo City mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog whom President Rodrigo Duterte tagged as a drug protector.
WANTED: NEW STL FRANCHISEE
According to Fraginal, PCSO would rebid to interested parties the STL franchise for Iloilo province.
He, however, stressed that PCSO would still press Eagle-Crest to pay its PMRR arrears.
Eagle-Crest started operating in February 2016. It maintained an office and draw court in the municipality of Santa Barbara. It held its last draw on Wednesday night, May 9.
Fraginal said the PCSO Board approved the termination of Eagle-Crest’s STL operations. PCSO general manager Balutan signed the termination letter.
Aside from the failure to remit the monthly PMRR, an STL franchisee’s operation may also be terminated if it is found to have violated PCSO’s implementing rules and regulations for STL.
Under Article IV, Section 11 of the revised IRR for STL, an applicant for STL franchise must have a minimum authorized capital stock of P50 million./PN
