Aglipay, Quirino”•The “Peryahan ng Bayan” operations of Globaltech Mobile Online Corp. are legal because the Court of Appeals says so, the head of the Cagayan Valley regional police said here Wednesday.
“We won’t conduct raids because Globaltech’s operations are above board,” Chief Supt. Jose Mario Espino, Police Regional Office 2 head, said in a press conference at the Quirino Police Provincial Office.
Espino did not supply the local media with documents of the court decision he cited, even as the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office”•which had revoked Globaltech’s license to operate a version of the state lottery popularly known as “jueteng” over remittance issues”•said the Philippine National Police had no right to determine what numbers games are legal or illegal.
“It is only the PCSO who has the authority to do so,” said Manuel Fraginal, PCSO executive assistant VI and chief of the agency’s Nationwide Inter-Branch Security Monitoring division, as he reacted to Espino’s statement.
“If the PNP does that, it is a direct violation of the PCSO Charter, ratified and turned into law by Congress,” he added.
Fraginal noted that Globaltech’s authority from the state lottery firm had expired on March 31, 2016, and in the 15 areas which Globaltech was allowed to operate before, “not a single province is in Region 2.”
This developed as police from the Dupax Del Norte Police Station temporarily stopped the legal Small Town Lottery Operations in the town on orders from the PRO-2 office.
Sources told Manila Standard the police ordered the collectors and “cabos” (bankers) to cease collecting bets because they were doing surveillance on Globaltech’s Peryahan operations in the area.
The same sources said Police Supt. Ariel Quilang, the PRO-2 intelligence division chief, told management of local STL operator Kings Gaming Corp.: “We won’t touch your operations, but we will stop your cabos from consolidating the bets for remittance.”
Nueva Vizcaya Governor Carlos Padilla, acting on complaints from PCSO national officials led by General Manager Alexander Balutan, called on PRO-2 officials to clarify their operations before shutting down legal enterprises such as Kings Gaming or “harassing” their employees.