THE big-time gambling lords including Charlie “Atong” Ang are allegedly out to destroy President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on illegal gambling by conniving with some lawmakers to declare the expanded Small Town Lottery illegal, according to an intelligence report obtained Sunday by the Manila Standard.
“Atong Ang has requested some lawmakers to declare STL illegal or he will reveal their names and identify them as recipients of payola,” the report said.
“Last February 13 the House Committee on Games and Amusement threatened to pass a resolution declaring PCSO’s STL illegal.”
Ang could not be reached for comment.
The STL is a charity game of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office which legality was earlier questioned by House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez. He even threatened to file charges before the Office of the Ombudsman against PCSO executives.
“Atong Ang is now feeling the heat from the government’s illegal gambling campaign,” the report said.
Ang, a known jueteng financier, has accused some retired military and police generals including National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. and Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre of plotting to kill him while claiming they were taking kickbacks from the STL operations.
Ang said his contacts from the National Bureau of Investigation and from the police and military had warned him about the alleged plot to kill him.
Esperon dismissed that as a tall tale and said Ang’s impunity on illegal gambling “will be killed” and not him.
Aguirre likewise slammed Ang for fabricating an issue to get back at him because of the Jack Lam issue that shut down the illegal gambling operations last year at Fontana in Clark, Pampanga.
Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, a known critic of President Rodrigo Duterte, has threatened to call a probe into the issue, and Ang confidently declared during his press conference at the Resort World in Pasay City to tell all only during a congressional hearing.
The intelligentce report also said some anti-Duterte lawmakers were also asked to help Ang to question the illegal gambling campaign of the Duterte administration.
“Successive hearings supposedly in aid of legislation are expected in the coming days to shape the public’s opinion that President Duterte’s Executive Order No. 13 is a failure,” the report said.
Allegedly, some lawmakers were demanding more shares from the STL.
“Governors and mayors have been insisting that they must have a say in the selection of STL operators in their areas,” the report said. “Politicians are also clamoring for a higher share of STL revenues and want their share directly given to them by STL operators instead of the PCSO, which insists on asking for government issued receipts.”
