THE minority bloc in the House of Representatives on Wednesday rallied behind the Duterte administration’s fight against illegal gambling.
Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez, the bloc’s leader, lauded the President’s issuance of Executive Order 13 ordering several agencies of government such as the Philippine National Police, National Bureau of Investigation, Department of Justice, Department of the Interior and Local Government, and Department of Information and Communications Technology to cooperate in pushing the government’s intensified efforts to curb illegal gambling.
“We support the President in his campaign against illegal gambling. The prevalence of illegal gambling maintains, and encourages, a habit of defying existing laws to the detriment of peace and order in our nation,” Suarez told a news conference.
“Illegal operators have a window of opportunity to legitimize their operations. We strongly encourage them to take it,” Suarez added.
Suarez said illegal gambling operations have to stop even as the minority proposed a “unified recognition of the Philippine Lotto and the Small Town Lottery as the sole legal numbers game in the Philippines.”
“This aims to completely eradicate jueteng and other forms of illegal gambling while facilitating the expansion of this national legal numbers game to all provinces in the country,” the minority leader said.
Suarez stressed: “The minority has been vocal against illegal gambling. We are encouraged that the President shares the minority’s firm stand against the proliferation of jueteng, masiao, and other illegal numbers games in the country,.”
Suarez said due to the persistence of illegal gambling, the government posted losses of up to P20 billion annually.
He said the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office is mandated by law to raise funds for health and welfare programs, which it does by supervising legal lottery games.
“The P20 billion could afford the PCSO with funds to defray the costs of health, medical and other charitable programs,” Suarez said..
Suarez said apart from being a financial drain, illegal gambling lacks regulation and transparency.
“Bettors lose money as ‘winning numbers’ draws are rigged to the advantage of the operators,” Suarez said.
“We recognize the cultural roots of numbers games in our country, which is why the government sought to regulate its operation through STL. The aim of STL, to provide a regulated, transparent numbers game which redounds to the general welfare, cannot be achieved if illegal numbers games persist,” Suarez added.