AFTER WAR ON DRUGS
The Mandaue City Police Office (MCPO) has launched its campaign against all forms of illegal gambling, including masiao swertres, yesterday.
The campaign “Swerte ang Taya sa Legal” (STL) is patterned after the acronym of Small Town Lottery.
Mandaue City Police Director Roberto Alanas said in a press statement that despite the government’s intensified anti-drug operations, the Philippine National Police is not turning a blind eye on illegal activities that are proliferating around the community, waiting for possible victims.
He said masiao swertres is an activity that attracts everyone for the possibility of winning prizes higher than that offered by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office’s (PCSO) swertres lotto.
This kind of gambling operation is purely illegal and has been affecting legal gambling businesses.
Due to rampant illegal swertres in the city, the MCPO has been conducting anti-illegal gambling operations since Alanas assumed as city police director in July 2016.
The MCPO has so far conducted 262 anti-gambling operations, arrested 422 persons and confiscated a total of P50,108.75 bet money from masiao swertres, card games and other illegal gambling activities.
The PCSO’s small-town lottery came into existence in order to address the problem of masiao.
The STL is authorized by the national government wherein some of its proceeds will go to charity, including, among others, health-related projects of the different local government units in the country.
The MCPO’s “Swerte ang Taya sa Legal: Bawat Taya Mo, Nakatulong Ka sa Charity” campaign encourages the Mandauehanons to help eradicate illegal gambling in the city and instead patronize the STL.
The city’s six police stations also distribute campaign flyers to the people.