Some 2,000 Small Town Lottery bet collectors in Iloilo City may be displaced if the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office succeed in imposing on its STL authorized agent corporation or AACs in the city a cash bond deposit.
The new condition has been described by Iloilo City councilor Rommel Duron, legal counsel of Red Subay Gaming Corp. as “very difficult.”
The AACs are required to deposit to the PCSO a cash bond equivalent to three months of the agency’s share in the guaranteed monthly retail receipts on top of their existing cash bonds.
According to Duron, Red Subay was required to:
• deposit a cash bond of P111 million, equivalent to one month of its presumptive monthly retail receipt.
• deposit P333 million guaranteed monthly retail receipts.
PCSO imposed the presumptive monthly retail receipt to ensure that STL operators would not be able to cheat the government on their sales and revenues.
Under Article IX, Section 36 of PCSO’s 2016 revised implementing rules and regulations for STL, it is the PCSO’s Board of Directors that determines the PMRR of a particular area. It must take into consideration, among others, the area’s location, population, national and local economic and growth targets and activities.
To determine an AAC’s PMRR, said Duron, 30 percent of the total registered voters in a province/city is multiplied with P2.50 and the result is again multiplied with three (draws).
PCSO wanted Red Subay to have three STL draws in a day, but Duron said this would be difficult, citing Iloilo’s wide area and the struggle its bet collectors especially in far-flung areas go through to remit their daily collections before deadline.
He said a “doable” PMRR for Red Subay was P60 million.
Officials in Manila said earlier this week none of the 87 small town lottery authorized agent corporations have complied with the conditions set by President Rodrigo Duterte almost a week after the Chief Executive lifted the ban on the numbers game.
PCSO general manager Royina Garma warned all STL AACs not to resume their operations as she called on the Philippine National Police to run after those defying the order.
“For now, though the President has lifted the suspension, no STL AAC has complied with the requirements, yet. So, therefore, we have not issued any certification for them to resume their operations,” the PCSO official told lawmakers in a briefing with the House of Representatives’ Games and Amusement Committee.
Duterte on July 26 ordered the suspension of STL operations nationwide due to reported irregularities and “massive corruption” but some AACs reportedly continued with their daily draws.
He lifted the suspension on Aug. 22 provided the AACs comply with certain requirements, including handing over to the PCSO a cash deposit apart from their existing cash bonds and posting of another bond equivalent to three months of the agency’s share in guaranteed minimum monthly retail receipts.
The STL AACs are also expected to execute a written undertaking that they will comply with their obligations under their STL contracts with the PCSO.
Garma earlier disclosed that almost P1.25 billion were lost from PCSO’s total revenue this year with the month-long suspension of STL operations.
She said the amount represented around 5 percent of the agency’s projected 2019 total revenue of P25 billion.
For the first six months of the year, more than half of PCSO’s total revenue came from the STL, she said.
For her part, PCSO board member Sandra Cam hit the House panel for swiftly adjourning the hearing, saying this robbed her of the chance to release “shocking” documents on the alleged corruption in STL operations.
“We are disheartened with Congress. I’m sick, but I came here for this and then they will just adjourn the hearing,” Cam said.
On Monday, Cam said in a press forum that the “mistah” system in the STL has resulted in corruption, with several lawmakers acting as “protectors.”
“Many congressmen are angry with me because they are protectors, but there are no sacred cows for Sandra Cam,” she said during the forum.
