Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) expressed its full support to the leadership of former president and now Pampanga representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who was sworn on Monday as the new Speaker of the House of the Representatives.
Macapagal-Arroyo who won with a vote of 184 lawmakers and 12 abstained replaced Davao del Norte representative Pantaleon Alvarez.
She is the first female Speaker in the House and second President of the Philippines to also assume the said post, following the late President Manuel Roxas who served as Speaker for 12 years.
âWe wish to congratulate Rep. Arroyo on her election as the new Speaker of the House. I am confident that under CGMAâs leadership, PCSO, especially Small Town Lottery (STL) operations, will continue to prosper,â Balutan said
In 2005, then Pres. Arroyo revived STL with PCSO as the lead operating agency.
âWith the new leadership in Congress, we hope they will immediately review laws governing PCSO specially on mandatory contributions,â Balutan said.
âMandatory contributions are âeating up fundsâ for medical service, instead of being used for charity, PCSO funds are being used for sports, education and crop insurance, among many others,â Balutan added.
From January to June 2018, PCSO reported that the agency earned P30.78 billion â the amount represents the combined retail receipts from Lotto, Keno, Small Town Lottery (STL), and Instant Sweepstakes.
The highest revenue came from STL with P12.4 billion, an increase of 146.85 percent compared with the same period last year; followed by Keno with P2.7 billion, an increase of 8.69 percent, and Sweepstakes with P662.7 million compared to only P12.5 million in 2017.
âRemember that with every peso that you spent for buying lotto tickets, 30 cents of that goes to charity. You may not be able to reach your dream of becoming a millionaire by winning the jackpot prize, but at least your 30 cents did not go to waste, your 30 cents save life of someone, somewhere across the country and that someone could be your friend, relative, or your neighbor who was able to get assistance from PCSO,â Balutan said.
STL, a regular game by PCSO authorized by the national government through Section 1 of Republic Act 1169, was first launched by then President Corazon Aquino in 1987, hoping to stamp out jueteng and illegal numbers game.
Both STL and jueteng involve betting on two-number combination and have similar mechanics. The only difference is that STL operators remit taxes to the government; while jueteng lords do not.
A House inquiry found that STL franchises had been awarded to the same people behind jueteng and was being used as front by jueteng operators. It ended the first STL operations in 1990.
On Dec. 28, 2005, the PCSO Board of Directors approved a resolution, calling for a test run of the STL. Resolution No. 464 likewise, effected the approval of rules and regulations governing the STL operations in selected pilot areas in Luzon.
In February 2006, PCSO launched the new, reinforced STL, incorporating the lessons learned from the first STL, under a test-run mode. It was also during this time that the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) for STL was crafted, which was revised in 2016.
By operating under a test-run mode for a period of a year, the PCSO was able to adopt changes needed to make the game effective as a local governments-based charity mechanism for PCSO, even as the new STL provided livelihood for those displaced by President Arroyoâs anti-jueteng campaign.
By end of 2007, PCSO has launched the STL in 15 approved test-run areas. These include: Quezon province, Angeles City, Bataan, Occidental Mindoro, Pampanga, Laguna, Bulacan, Negros Oriental, Iloilo City, Tarlac, Oriental Mindoro, Ilocos Norte, Albay, Olongapo City, Batangas.
During its first year of operations (2006-2007), STL generated revenues totaling to more than P3 billion, creating about 62,500 jobs and livelihood for displaced cabos and cobradores, as well as for the organic staff of the agent-corporations.
Since the launch of STL in 2006, the earnings were only fixed to P4.7 billion. That time, there were only 18 operating AACs.
Then PCSO Board studied why it was stuck to 18 AACs and found out that the system is controlled by big gambling lords.
âAyaw nilang i-expand, dagdagan, o palawakin ang STL sa mga probinsya kung saan malakas ang jueteng at iba dahil talagang matatalo ang mga gambling lord na ito. Wala silang mapagkukunana ng pampayola nila sa mga inaalagaan nilang korap na opisyal para tuloy ang kanilang illegal na gawain,â Balutan said.
In February 2017, PCSO launched its expanded STL. From 18 AACs, the Board approved 56 until the addition of even more AACs, hence it became 92 but only 81 to 84 were actually in operation in 2017.
At present, there are 79 AACs as some were terminated due to various violations in the STL-IRR.
In May the same year, STL gained an average earning of more than P1 billion. Year 2017 ended with STL making a history due to its record-breaking earnings at P15,750.895,045 with a 183.63 percent increase from the P6,462,304,820 in 2016. It opened 280,722 jobs as against P173,861 jobs in 2016.
According to reports, STL was able to stamp out illegal numbers game âjuetengâ in Pampanga, Arroyoâs hometown, since STL was first introduced.
Pampanga was also the first to reply to a request made by the PCSO to local governments to provide rent-free offices as cost-cutting measure of the agency in 2014./PN
