Lawmakers are increasingly turning to the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) to secure funds for the medical needs of their constituents now that the pork barrel is gone. As a result of this development, PCSO executives are urging congressmen to support their efforts to kill off illegal numbers games, raise more revenues for the government and at the same time create new jobs for Filipinos.
In separate interviews, PCSO chair Margarita P. Juico and general manager Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II unveiled plans to expand lotto operations and roll out more “jueteng and masiao killer games” this year amid mounting pressure to boost revenues and fill the void left by the abolition of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and to provide job opportunities for the rising number of unemployed Filipinos.
Juico said the PCSO planned to add another lotto game (6-58 with a minimum payout of P50 million) this year, expand its small town lottery (STL) operations to more provinces and cities, and roll out new games that would compete directly with jueteng (a two-digit numebrs game popular in Luzon) and masiao (a three-digit numbers game popular in Visayas and Mindanao) such as Bingo Milyonaryo and other on-line games, and beef up its sweepstakes operations.
Juico said: “We are feeling the pressure to add to our revenues especially because we expect more referrals for medical assistance from lawmakers who have lost their Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) allocations. We also want to help the government to address the growing unemployment in the country.”
Juico reported that while PCSO posted P32 billion in revenues from its gaming operations in 2013, it suffered P900 million in losses from the lotto outlets that were wiped out by the string of disasters that struck Zamboanga City (siege by the Moro National Liberation Front), Bohol (earthquake), and Samar and Leyte (supertyphoon Yolanda [Haiyan]) and it coughed out an additional P1 billion in calamity funds for these areas.
Rojas said that the 6-58 lotto game would be introduced in July./INQUIRER