Local PCSO Office Awaits Order to Terminate STL Contracts

NAGA CITY  (9 January 2011) - - A TOP BRASS of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) in Bikol recently answered public inquiries that the PCSO in Bikol has not received any current directive to terminate the franchise or contracts of Small Town  Lottery (STL) corporations which were earlier allowed to operate.

PCSO Regional operations manager and Chief Lottery Operations Officer Laila D.  Galang said that STL operators have anticipated that PCSO will terminate their contracts by the end of the prevous year after Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Sec. Jesse Robredo made a pronouncement that new guidelines on the operations of STL will be provided by the PCSO.

Reportedly, the new guidelines will resolve problems that jueteng operators in the provinces are riding on the STL operation, particularly to collect jueteng bets.

Galang said that expected new guidelines for STL operations will be made public by the PCSO central office in the coming weeks.

Only two corporations were granted by the PCSO to operate STL franchises in Bikol, the “Oceania” firm in Sorsogon province and the “Even-Chance Gaming Corp.” in Camarines Sur.

The PCSO franchises were granted to operate on an “experimental basis” only in their respective provincial jurisdiction, Galang noted.

The PCSO Bicol manager also stressed that operations of the Meridien Vista Gaming Corp. (MVGC), which has license to operate from the Cagayan Industrial Zone and reportedly given permit by the City government here to open an on-line betting station, has no contract with PCSO.

Galang claimed that a franchise given by the PCSO to operate STL does not anymore require getting a business permit from the local government.

Meanwhile it was reported that members of the League of Municipalities in Camarines Sur have aired their doubts that the STL operator in the province is remitting the required share of its operation.

According to PCSO records, the Even-Chance Gaming Corp. has only given big shares to a few LGUs in Camarines Sur based on the Nov. 2010 records.

Iriga  City, which had the biggest STL share had, P 101,743; Sipocot town had P71,957; Calabanga had P 71,149; and Buhi had P 59,000.

Other towns in the province were only receiving shares from P 59,000 to P 52,000, while the PNP Camarines Sur has some P 510,000 share from the operation.

Under the PCSO guidelines, LGUs have 10% share, the province has 5%, the congressional district receives 2.5%, and the PNP gets 5%.

Reportedly the purpose of the sharing system is to help the LGUs fund charity projects without depending much from the national government. (SONNY SALES).