ILOILO – Following the shutdown of the Small Town Lottery (STL) operator in this province, the Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO) alerted all police stations for the resurgence of illegal gambling.
“I ordered chiefs of police to monitor their areas well and arrest illegal gambling personalities resuming their operations,” said Senior Superintendent Marlon Tayaba, IPPO director.
The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) designed STL to combat illegal numbers games. But its Iloilo franchisee, Eagle-Crest Gaming and Holding Corp., failed to regularly remit the required Presumptive Monthly Retail Receipts (PMRR).
Tayaba said the IPPO won’t tolerate illegal gambling.
“We will not stop until maging illegal gambling-free ang province of Iloilo,” he said.
In interviews months before he was killed in an ambush on March 13 this year, Eagle-Crest owner Samuel Aguilar said he had over 2,000 bet collectors across the province.
Manuel Fraginal, chief of PCSO’s National Inter-Branch Security Monitoring, warned displaced STL bet collectors of Eagle-Crest not to return to working for illegal gambling operators.
Tayaba acknowledged that STL somehow eased the illegal gambling problem in Iloilo. He was hopeful that PCSO would be allowing another franchisee to operate STL in the province.
“Kung meron mang papalit, better. At least may katulong na mag-combat ng illegal gambling,” he said.
Eagle-Crest held its last draw on Wednesday night, May 9.
A document obtained by this paper showed that Eagle-Crest’s PMRR arrears from January 2017 to February 2018 reached P660,400,533.60.
PMRR is the amount determined by PCSO as the presumed minimum monthly sales of an authorized agent corporation or STL franchisee. It should be remitted to PCSO every month.
PCSO imposed the PMRR requirement to ensure that STL operators would not be able to cheat the government on their sales and revenues.
ILLEGAL GAMBLING COMPETES WITH STL
Before the Sangguniang Panlalawigan in September 2017, Tayaba admitted that despite the STL operation of Eagle-Crest this province was still having illegal gambling problems.
He identified six areas with illegal gambling activities – the towns of Lambunao, Dumangas, Banate, Barotac Nuevo, and Balasan, and the component city of Passi.
Tayaba also named three illegal gambling groups – the Adelantar group based in Janiuay town, the Hautea group based in Barotac Nuevo and the Peling group.
Five months after Tayaba disclosed this, PCSO director Sandra Cam bared during the Feb. 12, 2018 Senate investigation on PCSO and STL that Eagle-Crest’s Aguilar was an illegal gambling operator and was using his STL franchise to avoid detection.
She claimed illegal gambling in Iloilo was raking in the bulk of the money and Eagle-Crest was remitting only minuscule STL revenues to the government.
Then Director General Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa of the Philippine National Police, during an August 2017 visit to Iloilo, declared an “all-out war” against illegal gambling.
Addressing Western Visayas policemen during a program marking the 116th Police Service Anniversary in Camp Martin Delgado in Aug. 14, 2017, Dela Rosa announced he was giving Chief Superintendent Cesar Hawthorne Binag, regional police director, “full authority” to relieve city and provincial police directors.
“I am declaring an all-out war against illegal gambling. Non-performing policemen would be relieved (from their posts) and (held) administratively liable,” said Dela Rosa.
The tough-talking police general also warned scalawags in uniform such as those receiving protection money from illegal gambling operators.
“Sa mga pulis na gumagawa ng katiwalian, hindi po kayo makakalusot. Sisiguraduhin ko ‘yan,” he said.
Dela Rosa also gave city and provincial police directors the power to sack police chiefs who fail to eradicate illegal gambling in their turfs./PN
