Bishop: Gov't 'stance' on lotto prices a 'big joke'

One big joke. This was how a bishop crusading against gambling described Malacañang's statement that it halted a planned increase in lotto ticket prices to prevent people from switching to jueteng. Lingayen-Dagupan archbishop Oscar Cruz said Tuesday that instead of laughing, people are finding the "joke" not funny but "downright offensive." Cruz noted that officials of Malacañang and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) had been making a big deal of the plan to stop increasing ticket prices from P10 to P20. Officials of the Palace and PCSO had claimed it was better to keep the ticket prices at P10, lest people switch to "illegal" forms of gambling. "The truth is before and after the introduction of the government-sponsored gambling of lotto, the illegal numbers games have been thriving well specially after 2001. To this date and time, jueteng and masiao are openly promoted and at times even boldly protected in many provinces. If the said government and PCSO officials do not know this public and standing fact, they are either much uninformed or they simply refuse to know the truth," Cruz said in his web log. Cruz also branded as a big joke statements that the proposed increase in ticket prices was intended to increase PCSO revenues for its numerous charity works. He said the bulk of PCSO gambling revenues goes to fund anything and everything "with but a pittance thereof going to works of charity." The prelate said the best argument in proving this practice is the immediate attachment of PCSO and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) to Malacañang, "which is certainly not a charitable agency." A third big joke, he said, was that PCSO said it believed that the primary purpose of lotto bettors was to help in its charitable works, and that winning was merely secondary. "This claim is tops in incredibility and super even to inanity. People gamble for charity! Gamblers have altruistic intentions! Gambling is motivated generosity! If this were really the case, then their biggest gamblers should be presented by PCSO and PAGCOR, as candidates for the sainthood," he said. "The fact is that gambling stands for avarice and greed that make gamblers covet what they did not sweat for, what belongs to others," he added. On the other hand, Cruz said the government's search for money by all means and at any cost betrays that it is broke. "It's broke! This is why practically all government agencies are poised to raise fees and taxes. There is even one that wants to do this at the rate of 2,600%! It can be said that government allies are all out to ingratiate themselves to the national leadership by handling this more and more—at the expense of the people, of course," he said. PCSO had planned to double the price of each ticket from P10 to P20. This was supposed to cover the Super Lotto 6/49, Mega Lotto 6/45 and Lotto 6/42 games. However, ticket prices for three-digit lotto "Swertres" and two-digit lotto "EZ 2" was to remain at P10. PCSO acting spokesperson Larry Cedro earlier said the agency eyed higher ticket prices after noticing spikes in lotto sales when jackpot prizes soared. However, Cedro was quick to add that along with the rise in ticket prices also comes the rise in prize pots. Lotto 6/42 and Mega Lotto 6/45's starting jackpot prizes of P3 million and 4.5 million was set to go up to P6 million and P9 million respectively. Meanwhile, the P8-million initial prize pot for Lotto 6/42 was supposed to shoot up to P16 million. - GMANews.TV