The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office has tapped the Philippine National Police as lead law enforcement agency in its nationwide all-out war against illegal gambling using Small Town Lottery as fronts in line with President Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign against corruption, Chairman Jose Jorge Corpuz said Friday.
Corpuz met with PNP chief General Ronald dela Rosa last Tuesday at Camp Crame in Quezon City to discuss the government’s war against illegal gambling vis-a-vis the PCSO’s launching of the government-sponsored expanded STL operations in the country.
Also in the meeting was PCSO general manager Alexander Balutan who will lead the crackdown against all forms of illegal gambling operations using STL as front.
“Let us not fail the President,” Corpuz asked Dela Rosa, disclosing that the PCSO has approved 38 new corporations in addition to the already 18 existing STL Authorized Agent Corporations.
“Aside from Lotto and other game products of PCSO, the only legal numbers game in the country is STL,” Corpuz stated.
Balutan said the PCSO will officially launch the expanded STL operations next week at Malacañang and this will be followed by a media briefing on Jan. 31.
“All the 56 STL Authorized Agent Corporations will start operations on Feb. 1. We have clear directives from the President to rid STL of any form of illegal operations. We’ve asked PNP chief Bato to support us and all other law enforcement agencies such as the Armed Forces of the Philippines and National Bureau of Investigation to do their share to support us as ordered by the President,” Balutan said.
The expanded STL operation is expected to generate billions of pesos of revenue for the government that Duterte has promised to use to buy medicines that will be given free to the public.
“Rest assured of PCSO’s serious campaign to stamp out illegal numbers game in the country related to the STL,” Balutan added.
In the same meeting, Corpuz also asked Dela Rosa to order his men on the ground to crackdown and arrest illegal gambling lords and their minions operating “peryahan ng bayan,” “sakla,” “jueteng,” last two, bookies, and others.
Dela Rosa, on the other hand, said the PNP fully supports PCSO to eliminate illegal gambling operations.
He said he already got instructions from Duterte to support the PCSO by creating “Project Double Barrel Illegal Gambling (IG)” and “Oplan Tokhang IG” using the same approach on the PNP campaign against illegal drugs.
