Illegal STL bet collector nabbed in Tabaco City

By Celso Amo

LEGAZPI CITY --- A small town lottery illegal bet collector was nabbed on Friday morning last week in Tabaco City a day after Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office(PCSO) general manager Alexander Balutan declared that small town lottery franchise holder Lucky V Prime Enterprises Corp has already been terminated.

Romeo Bongayon, 60, was caught collecting STL bets using ten xeroxed copies of PCSO bet form in Barangay Cabangan in Tabaco City on Friday, according to Supt. Nilo Berdin, Tabaco City police chief.

Recovered from Bongayon, resident of Purok 2 in the same barangay, was P270 worth of bets.

Illegal STL betting is still ongoing at the market site in Bacacay, Albay.

Balutan warned local officials in Albay who tolerate STL operations in their territories despite the termination of Lucky V Prime Enterprises Corp. for failure to remit P259.4 million to the agency.

“We can’t yet release their names as we are monitoring their operations,” said Balutan during a press conference at La Piazza Hotel and Convention Center Thursday morning.

There were also reports that jueteng in the guise of STL is going on in Albay’s third district.

“STL is the killer of jueteng,” Balutan said, adding the money derived from jueteng are used by politicians to buy votes so as to maintain their hold on voters.

Balutan said that with the coming mid-term elections next year politicians want jueteng to resume.

But the PCSO said any STL operation in Albay is now illegal.

There are now five applicants to the vacant STL franchise in Albay but only one applicant has submitted the required documents.

Balutan said total shares from STL increased 39 percent from P304,915,684.24 in 2017 to P422,543,639.38 million this year.

PCSO has collected more than P48,020,431,562.78 billion revenues from January to September this year, 25 .5 percent higher compared to the P38,267,580,040.15 billion the same period last year.

Dr. Larry Cedro, PCSO assistance general manager for charity section, said PCSO will provide 40 percent to support the Universal Health Care Program of President Duterte.