Aside from contributing billions of pesos to the Charity Fund, Small Town Lottery operations have given jobs and decent lives to 310,863 people all over the country, reported Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office general manager Alexander Balutan on Friday.
“Of 310,863 jobs, 13,611 are organic STL employees, 22,950 are sales supervisors, and 274,302 are sales agents,” Balutan said.
When it comes to regions, assistant general manager for Branch Operations Sector Remeliza Gabuyo confirmed that Northern and Central Luzon have generated the highest number of jobs with 147,261.
“It was followed by Southern Tagalog and Bicol Region with 88,745 jobs, Visayas with 43,464 jobs, Mindanao with 20,552 jobs, and National Capital Region with 10,841 jobs,” Gabuyo said.
“Instead of tolerating jueteng, let us support and strengthen STL. STL has provided ‘legal’ jobs for people who were used to illegal numbers game. They are the ones who cannot even pass the nitty-gritties of job fairs due to age, lack of education, and physical disability. We have saved them from vices—example drugs—and from being exploited by criminals. STL is giving them and their families a decent life,” Balutan said.
The established and existing STL corporations provide regular medical missions and educational assistance to their towns and municipalities, apart from providing economic activity to the province.
At present, Balutan said that PCSO has 85 operational Authorized STL Agents nationwide, with 18 more approved ASAs for the first semester of 2018 and six terminated ASAs for violations of the STL Implementing Rules and Regulations.
STL is a regular game by PCSO authorized by the national government through Section 1 of Republic Act 1169.
ASAs are corporations or cooperatives duly registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission or with the Cooperative Development Authority, respectively, that applied, been duly qualified and expressly authorized by the PCSO to conduct STL in a particular area.
The whole gross sales of PCSO from its lottery products such as Lotto, Sweepstakes and STL, 55 percent of which goes to Prize Fund, 15 percent goes to Operating Fund and the remaining 30 percent goes to Charity Fund.