"It's about time the PCSO got rid of these entities."
"It's about time the PCSO got rid of these entities."
No, it’s not about the lucky bettor in the largely-popular Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office number—the lotto, which today, has several variations, from 6/42 to 6/55.
It’s about the lucky suppliers of the equipment which has been accepting bets in behalf of the PCSO for the past 24 years, which Ang Probinsyano Representative Ronnie Ong claims has put the government in a disadvantageous position.
And because of that, Ong is calling on his colleagues in Congress to initiate a probe into the contracts the PCSO entered into with the Philippine Gaming Management Corporation under Berjaya Corporation and the Pacific Online Systems Corporation for its National Online Lottery System.
Ong describes the Equipment Lease Agreements the PCSO has entered into with Berjaya and Pacific Online as beyond comprehension. The government can simply buy the equipment at $25 million compared to the cost of lease amounting to $148 million.
Ong adds that the anomalous contracts have already been uncovered in the Senate inquiry way back in 2011, which recommended to the PSCO that it renegotiate the rental fee with both PGMC-Berjaya and Pacific Online.
But despite the Senate recommendation to renegotiate the fee, the PGMC-Berjaya refused to budge, triggering a string of litigation from the trial court, to the Court of Appeals, up to the International Court of Arbitration.
The bigger surprise was that even after dragging PCSO into a costly and expensive legal battle, the company’s ELA was even extended by the PCSO from Aug. 22, 2015 to Aug. 21, 2018.
Even more ridiculous, Ong says, is the fact that while PCSO was paying millions to PGMC-Berjaya, the company still pressed on with its legal offensive and managed to secure another court injunction in 2017 to stop the gaming body from conducting a bidding for its P10.9-billion National Online Lottery System, which could have already improve the system.
And while the Supreme Court finally issued a ruling on Aug. 15, 2018 that the PCSO can proceed with the bidding of the NOLS which was later renamed as the Philippine Lottery System and with a lesser budget of P8.3 billion, PCSO, instead getting rid of PGMC-Berjaya was able to secure another extension of its ELA from Aug. 23, 2018 to Aug. 22, 2019 because of PCSO’s alleged failure to “timely procure” the said PLS. At the same time, Pacific Online’s ELA for Visayas and Mindanao operations was also extended for the same reason.
And in July this year, PCSO again had a failure of bidding for the PLS and had to resort to another extension of ELA with PGMC-Berjaya and Pacific Online until 2020.
With the foregoing instances, Ong says its about time congress steps in and ensure that proper procurement are observed and prevent rogue and abusive companies like PGMC-Berjaya in exploiting government agencies like the PCSO.
Even Quezon Congressman Jay-Jay Suarez had joined the clamor to end Berjaya’s and Pacific Online’s hold on the PCSO’s popular lotto game.
As Berjaya is a Malaysian-owned corporation, Suarez says he suggested to PCSO to find a local player based in the Philippines so that Philippine money pouring into lotto would be revolving within the Philippines and not be brought outside the country.
Ong and Suarez are both right. Berjaya and Pacific Online have long been enjoying the fruits of an allegedly highly-anomalous contract it seem they have been hitting the jackpot every day and for as long they hold on to their contract.
Maybe it’s about time PCSO got rid of them.
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Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat is really doing a fine job in her department.
Just the other day, her agency reaped another accolade for its beefed-up drive to promote sustainable tourism practices in its destinations, this time receiving the Excellent Partner Award from the prestigious Japan Tourism Awards in recognition of the role of the DOT in the temporary closure of Boracay Island in order to rehabilitate the island from over-tourism.
The award-giving body cited the socially advanced initiatives of DOT by taking a high risk of closing and pursuing a cohesive effort to implement the physical, social, environmental and social recovery of the world-renowned resort island.
And last week, the Department of Tourism, and Ministry of Tourism Government of the Republic of India recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding to encourage bilateral cooperation in the tourism, trade, and hospitality sector.
Romulo-Puyat and Ambassador of India to the Philippines Jaideep Mazumdar acted as signatories to the MOU that seeks to strengthen the economic and cultural ties between the two countries, realizing the importance of the tourism sector in economic development and employment generation.
Among the cooperation areas between the two countries include research and statistical exchange, education and training, and joint promotion and marketing.
For the first eight months of the year, India remains the 11th top source market of the country with 91,690 arrivals registering a 9.66 percent growth rate over the same period last year.
The five-year MoU addresses cooperation activities carried out through the following modalities: encouragement of mutual visits;, exchange of promotion, marketing, destination development and management experiences; exchange of official standards and certification practices; development of tour packages; and, closer cooperation between the respective public and private sectors.
With the way Romulo-Puyat is handling her agency, we won’t be surprised if the DOT reaches its target tourist arrivals of 8.2 million and tourism-related revenue of half-a-trillion pesos even before the year ends.