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Friday, March 29, 2024

Leadership by example bolsters PCSO’s war vs illegal gambling

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While former officials of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office have allegedly fallen prey to accepting money from illegal gambling operators, PCSO General Manager Alexander Balutan, a retired Marine Corps general, said that ending corruption in his agency starts with him. 

Balutan, a member of the Philippine Military Academy Class of 1983, earned the monicker “mandirigma” (warrior) for his long years of fighting in conflict areas in Mindanao. He was given another “war” assignment by  President Rodrigo Duterte — to wage battle against the illegal numbers games across the country. 

Balutan said he is simply applying what he has learned from his long years in active service to achieve higher revenues while stamping out illegal gambling.

“Having served the military for so many years, the attributes and traits that I got from the Armed Forces, I was able to apply them here at PCSO. And our leadership turned into good results,” Balutan told Manila Standard in an interview.

“Number one for me is leadership by example. No leader, no commander can demand respect from his subordinate if he does not set the example. That’s it. You walk the talk, you do what you preach. It makes a big difference in character and we use that, we apply that in PCSO,” he added. 

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While President Duterte’s marching orders to weed out illegal gambling in the country seemed to be a daunting task, PCSO under Balutan’s helm may have already found the solution to win the campaign.

Balutan said they have now successfully increased revenues and engaged former ‘jueteng’ players to “turn legal” while running after those who use the agency’s flagship Small Town Lottery game as front for illegal gambling activities.

General Manager Alexander F. Balutan

Upholding its mandate to generate funds from responsible gaming activities, PCSO was able to generate more than P36.56 billion from its overall sales last year and is expected to post a higher growth by the end of 2017. These revenues allow the agency to fund its various charitable programs for poor Filipinos.

With the STL’s expansion topping the PCSO’s Sustainability and Transformation Plans, Balutan said they expect to earn as much as P27 billion more once all of the 92 Authorized Agent Corporations become operational. 

“So far, since we assumed leadership last year, we have successfully increased our revenues. In 2016 alone, we profited P6.46 billion as against our 2015 revenues from STL alone. Also in our lotto (digit games), we’ve also increased sales. We are gaining ground,” Balutan said. 

From 18 Authorized Agent Corporations in 2015, more than 50 are now operational to date. The PCSO board recently approved the authorization of 36 more AACs to help increase the agency’s revenues, Balutan said. 

From January to May 2017 alone, STL sales amounted to P5.18-billion or an increase of more than 173.38 percent from only P2.06 billion for the same period last year.

While STL remains the agency’s second major revenue generator, next only to the lotto game at P28.7 billion, Balutan said there remains a great potential to generate more revenues to fund the agency’s charitable programs and at the same time curb the operations of illegal numbers games such as jueteng. 

Challenges ahead

While the profitability of illegal gambling operations have already registered a marked decline due to the strengthened STL, some roadblocks remain as the government continues to weed out corrupt activities funded by jueteng lords.

Balutan noted that some former jueteng operators, such as Bong Pineda and Charing Magbuhos, have already shifted toward STL operations, which ensures that taxes are directly paid to the PCSO.

“We continue to gain ground and continue to implement reforms. But corruption is still rampant because of illegal gambling but we are fighting this. If there is illegal gambling, the games [could] still be used to bribe people on the ground,” Balutan said. 

As for those who still chose to continue with their criminal activities, Balutan said authorities are using the full might of the law in its crackdown against the illegal numbers game.

President Rodrigo Duterte recently issued Executive Order No. 13 declaring a war on illegal gambling, which resulted in the arrests of collectors (kubrador), their immediate supervisors (cabo) and operators in many parts of the country. 

As for those who turned legal, an estimated 550,000 employees of AACs are now benefitting from the gains of the government’s legal numbers game—receiving a monthly compensation of P6,000 regardless of their educational attainment, experience, or age. 

“When the AACs reach 92, that number will increase to 900,000. That is the employment potential. We hope this will have a bandwagon effect,” Balutan said.

In the coming days, PCSO’s focus is to overcome challenges in STL operations, including the resistance of local officials who have benefitted from jueteng money for the longest time.

Some 29.4 percent of revenue from STL operations goes to the Charity Fund used for the various health and charitable programs of the agency, including the Individual Medical Assistance Program with more than 300,000 beneficiaries in 2016. 

Other revenues of the STL go to the operating fund (14.7 percent), prize fund (53.9 percent) and printing cost (two percent). 

Future plans

With the PCSO’s day-to-day operations on his hands, Balutan said he wanted to increase the agency’s revenues to help more Filipinos in need.

“Many of our plans are aligned with the President’s 10-point socio-economic agenda, with the PCSO funding medical and health programs of the government and also alleviating the poor provinces identified by the NAPC (National Anti-Poverty Commission),” he said.

“Our dream is for the PCSO to help more beneficiaries and we can do that by increasing our revenues,” he added. 

Another goal is to “have a branch in every province” nationwide, from the current 57 PCSO branch offices, to reach out as widely as possible to those in need of charity services.

“If we could increase the number of PCSO branches, of course we would spend more but in turn, the government can help more and we can have increased partnerships with more hospitals,” Balutan said.

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