"Garma must get her act together and use a little creativity."
We gathered that the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) is falling short of its mandate to raise revenues to support public health, especially at this time of continued pandemic crisis.
It has been two years since President Duterte installed PCSO General Manager Royina Garma, replacing retired Marines general Alex Balutan amid perennial allegations of corruption.
But the agency apparently did not flourish as Malacañang had hoped it would under Garma, a former Cebu City Police chief even before the COVID-19 pandemic began.
After being briefly suspended at the onset of the public health crisis, PCSO operations resumed in hopes it would help generate funds for the government response to the pandemic crisis, particularly the proceeds from Lotto and the Small Town Lottery (STL).
Over 50 percent of the PCSO revenues that support charitable medical assistance to poor people come from Lotto operations.
The STL also had been PCSO’s source of tens of billions of pesos funds but that has reportedly dwindled under Garma’s watch.
Garma has blamed the resurgence of the illegal numbers game jueteng and online cockfighting or sabong for the STL’s “poor performance.”
The PCSO head has also blamed the Peryahan ng Bayan (PNB) which she herself had permitted for competing with STL patronage.
She questionably allowed Peryahan to operate again despite millions of pesos in unremitted earnings due the PCSO, prompting a Congressional inquiry in December 2019.
However, concerned quarters dismissed the PCSO official’s flimsy excuses, saying that jueteng, online sabong and PNB each respectively has its own patronage or following of bettors.
Cockfighting aficionados laughed off Garma’s claim that online sabong has drawn bettors from STL, saying its hogwash. “Sa manok kami tumataya noon pa. Kahit ngayon ang sabong digital na,” one online sabong bettor said.
According to well-placed sources, Garma has failed to effectively collect the revenues due the agency based on the Paid Monthly Remittance Rate (PMMR) figures.
They said she is facing exactly the same predicament her predecessor did which is being shortchanged by an STL “cartel” of big operators of their due remittances.
During my teleradyo interview yesterday, Isabela Governor Rodito Albano challenged the PCSO to exercise its authority to collect the proceeds from franchise holders.
Albano said it appears the PCSO is the one begging for commission from the franchise holders or STL operators.
It should be the PCSO regulating, overseeing, and collecting revenues while the franchise operators earn commission.
We agree that Garma must get her act together and use a little creativity to compel those operators who connive to deprive PCSO of due remittances.
Perhaps, she can cancel the franchise of those found to have reneged their obligation to remit.
Just like the way electric and water companies do it, serve them a “notice of disconnection” if they fail to remit within a certain period, and cancel the franchise altogether if they fail to remit.
Or maybe, the House Committee on Games and Amusement could again investigate any possible collusion between the STL cartel and some PCSO officials in defrauding the government of STL funds.