The House of Representatives’ committee on games and amusement will this week summon officials of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, its franchise holders and the operators of its different games to explain the agency’s losses.
Rep. Eric Yap, the committee chairman, said the gaming operators had a lot of explaining to do as to why they were the ones dictating how much money they would remit.
He asserted the right of the people and the government to know why the PCSO was losing a lot of money from the small-town lottery, EZ2 and other PCSO games.
“Reports reached me that franchise holders and operators are just remitting any amount they would want to. The PCSO would readily accept any amount. The government must be the one to dictate how much each operator would give,” Yap said.
“Based on the intelligence information of ACT-CIS, only a total of P400 million is being remitted a day out of the earnings of the small town lottery operators nationwide when, in fact, it should be a total of P400 million a day nationwide.”
Yap said he would summon and invite PSCO officials and other stakeholders to a congressional inquiry.
He threatened to recommend the filing of appropriate charges against erring PCSO officials and gaming operators for conspiring with one another to “steal” money from the government.
“I will also recommend the cancellation of their franchises or licenses,” Yap said.
On July 26, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the suspension of all PCSO’s gaming activities for alleged massive corruption but lifted the suspension of lotto four days after.
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