Expansion of small-town lottery proposed in House

A SENIOR legislator has proposed to expand the Small Town Lottery (STL) nationwide, to boost the funding of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) and increase employment.

“We estimated that if [STL] is played nationwide, you can generate employment of 1.5 million,” House Minority Leader Danilo E. Suarez said during the 2017 budget deliberations at the House of Representatives.

“Can we ask the GM (General Manager) to come up with statistical analysis of instituting this game... This is gambling right? But this is the most transparent form of gambling for our citizens,” Mr. Suarez said.

PCSO General Manager Ferdinand M. Rojas II said that STL is currently present in 14 provinces out of 81 and four cities out of 144.

In his presentation, Mr. Rojas said that the STL generated P4.79 billion in 2015, and P1.231 billion for the first quarter of the year. PCSO’s main revenue stream is the Lotto, Lotto Express, and Sweepstakes accounting for P32.475 billion in 2015.

Mr. Suarez said that expanding the STL could provide jobs for “1.5 million marginalized people who will never pass job fairs.”

The STL was introduced during the term of former President and now House Deputy Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in hopes of eliminating jueteng by introducing an alternative.

“We thought of this game because (it is a) fact that gambling is a way of life, we cannot do away with it, so we might as well benefit from it,” Mr. Suarez said.

The minority leader added that “this is an enormous possibility of raising revenue and coming up with a program of helping curbing unemployment.”

The PCSO currently employs 180,000 uniformed workers, Mr. Roxas said.

House Appropriations Chairman Karlo Alexei B. Nograles clarified there would no budget presentation for PCSO as the agency generates its own funds for the government through sweepstakes, lotto express, STL and online lottery.

The PCSO is structured as a money-raising arm for health programs, medical assistance and charity and it allocates 55% of its income for prize, 30% for charity and 15% for operations.

Among the services of the PCSO is the Individual Medical Assistance Program (IMAP) which includes outpatient consultation, medicine donations, ambulance services for indigent patients, assistance for victims of calamities and national emergencies, patient assistance through Endowment Funds (EFs) and hospitalization assistance.

Mr. Rojas said that the PCSO’s daily IMAP amounts to P18.5 million from just P4 million daily in 2010. Meanwhile, in 2015, the EF given by PCSO totaled P142.9 million to 52 government hospitals.

The PCSO also has an Institutional Partner (IP) Program, which gives financial grants to orphanages, homes for the aged, homes for street-children, and the like. In 2015, the IP provided P24.81 million for 11,361 persons.

Meanwhile, the PCSO said it will continue to function despite the courtesy resignation of its Chairman and board directors, in compliance with President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s memorandum circular directing all appointees of the previous administration to tender their resignations, Mr. Roxas assured.

“It’s only the policy making, the function of the board, which will cease temporarily until such time that members of the board have been appointed by the President. I, as the designated vice-chairman and general manager [of the PCSO], in the absence of the chairperson, will act as the chairperson. The work of the directors is still the same, they are only awaiting their replacements,” Mr. Rojas said.

Mr. Rojas said that he is not part of the memorandum issued by the President as he is a career official. —