Mayors should avoid these criminal acts vs STL

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

The mayors in and out of the province should not emulate the actuation of a Pangasinan mayor if they want to be out of the bind.

 The young mayor and his two body guards were criminally and administratively charged at the provincial prosecutor by the National Bureau of Investigation after they allegedly  committed robbery, grave threats and grave coercion  and administrative cases for grave misconduct and grave abuse of authority before the Office of the Ombudsman  against two cobradores (sales agents) of an Authorized Agent Corporation (AAC) of the government’s run Small Time Lottery (STL) as stated by the Manila Times Newspaper.

The respondents of the criminal and administrative complaints were Calasiao Mayor Joseph Arman Bauzon and his two body guards Elias Villanueva, former chairman of Barangay Talibaew, and a John Doe.

“In his complaint, Jose Millora, Speed Game Incorporated (SGI) provincial operations manager, said that on July 15, Villanueva and his unidentified companion, both armed with short firearms, accosted Mariano Moyano and Francisco Ramos, SGI sales supervisors (cabo), along the road in Barangay Buenlag and at gunpoint forcibly took their cash collections amounting to more than P4, 300 and their cellular phones.

Villanueva and his companion reportedly threatened the two not to report the incident to the police and told them to stop collecting STL bets in Calasiao allegedly on order of Bauzon. The two suspects then fled on board a motorcycle.

Ramos and Moyano disclosed that during their meeting on July 11, Bauzon and Villanueva also threatened their fellow SGI cabos that they will be arrested if they continue to collect bets for STL,” news reports say.

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 These politicians and their cohorts did not learn
Some mayors and even board members were gung-ho on their pronouncements to question if not stop the number betting game ordered by President Rodrigo Duterte to replace the illegal jueteng and bookish that only fatten the pockets of politicians as the STL by-pass the local government units like towns and cities to issue the ballyhooed business permit.

 I have been writing this business permit’s brouhahas since time immemorial and even the officials of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) that oversees the STL have been telling all and sundry that these arguments by these LGUs’ officials are NO BRAINER, son of a gun!

What these pin heads in the LGUs have been questioning is a national law called Republic Act No. 1169 as amended, otherwise known as PCSO Charter.

 Its enactment superseded the old national laws like those in the Local Government Code of 1991 that empowered the mayor to issue first a business permit before a business entity can operate on his or her jurisdiction.

Here’s the law for those who did not understand it or try not to understand and act like an idiot because they just probably want to harass the AACs all over the country for something in return.

“..all duly –authorized PCSO agents, similar to all other selling Lotto, Sweepstakes, Lotto Express (Keno), STL and all PCSO products, are exempted securing barangay and/or mayor’s /business permit and payment of the pertinent license fees to Local Government Units,” pursuant to Section 4 of Republic Act No. 1169.

Here’s the excerpt of the jurisprudence from the Supreme Court: Supreme Court Resolution dated 6 July 1998 (G.R. 133769) affirming all other decisions of the Court of Appeals related to the said issuance of local permits.

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Let’s go back to what the news report said on the alleged infraction committed by the Calasiao mayor: “PCSO Provincial Manager Editha Romero said Bauzon’s order stopping STL operation is illegal because he violated the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) promulgated by the PCSO board of directors
Romero pointed out that only the PCSO board “shall have the sole discretion and authority to suspend, cancel, revoke or terminate the STL operations of a franchise holder” and not the mayor.

The mayor’s order stopping the bet collectors is also a violation of the IRR since the PCSO established the STL to provide employment, livelihood and help the government in raising funds for medical assistance, as well as other services and charity programs, Romero added.

Tsk, tsk, tsk! What would be the reaction of President Duterte if he learned this harassment to the STL in Pangasinan. What can you say my town mate Agriculture Secretary Manny Pinol?

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Aside from the billions of pesos yearly benefits received by the poor like medical expenses, subsidies to government offices, sports, and others through the AACs' daily remittances to the PCSO, the AACs all over the country will be providing jobs of up to 600, 000 people at the end of this year

“PCSO) General Manager Alexander Balutan recently said the 79 Authorized Agent Corporations operating the Small Town Lottery nationwide have hit a record high employment to more than 300,000 and with more AAC-STL applicants set for deliberation and approval by the Board this could double the number of people being employed for this year.

These jueteng like games, son of a gun, are employment churning machines where these cobradores and cabos (sales supervisors) could earn an average P7,000 to P8,000 monthly.

These cobradores and cabos could not get these jobs if they applied at jobs’ faire whose primordial qualification is a college diploma.

Balutan, on his press release sent to my email, said in the first semester of 2018, STL registered a whopping P12, 336,974.04 billion, up by 146.85 percent or P7.4-billion increase compared with the same period last year.

Now, who are those politicians and government officials that are harassing these worthy tens of billions pesos yearly program of the feisty president Duterte to help the Unwashed of Society?

Thanks PCSO on the genius of reengineering the illegal number games jueteng, Last Two in Mindanao, and other similar number games as revenue earning behemoths in this country.

Gee whiz, this is a multiplier effect that bode well for the economy, the mayors and board members should know!

(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)