Senate panel considering to invite Bong Pineda to next PCSO hearing
Published Feb 12, 2018 06:30 pm
By Mario Casayuran
The Senate games and amusement committee is considering inviting Rodolfo “Bong” Pineda, husband of Pampanga Gov. Lilia Pineda and an alleged known “jueteng” (illegal numbers game) lord, to appear in its next public hearing that he is the financier of legalized small town lottery (STL) operations in many Luzon provinces that illegally rake in billions of pesos in unremitted earnings to the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).
Senator Ping Lacson, Chairman of the Committe on Games and Amusements listens as PCSO's Ms. Sandra Cam speaks during the 2nd joint public hearing of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Controversy at the Senate of the Philippines in Pasay City, Feb 12, 2018. (MBPHOTO.CAMILLE ANTE)
“He is operating in many provinces and many guerilla and bookie operations, Dapat lang (It should be),’’ Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson, committee chairman, told Senate reporters after a four-hour hearing.
Asked if the observation of Charlie “Atong” Ang, a gambling operator, that STL was designed to fail, Lacson replied in the negative.
He, nevertheless, said gambling lords are in the STL business because they are able to fix the computations so that they remit a very small amount to the PCSO and amass huge profits.
The National Bureau of Investigation has stated that illegal STL operations with gambling lords behind them rake in P51 billion annually in potential revenues for the PCSO.
In today’s public hearing, Lacson said witnesses pointed to so many weak systems and procedures that allow corruption to take place at the PCSO.
Rep. Romeo M. Acop, a Philippine Military Academy (PMA) alumnus like Lacson, rued that the profitable operations of the STL has short-circuited the anti-crime functions of the Philippine National Police, Lacson was a former PNP chief.
He said Ang is right when he said the PCSO has been corrupted.
Antonio M. Bago, a former police officer who was alleged to operate in Camarines Sur, testified that he was allowed to operate STL in Camarines Sur and had conversed with a relative of Bong Pineda.
As such, Bago said he knew Bong Pineda was behind the STL operations in Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Bataan, Santiago city, Leyte Sur and Zambales.
Lacson wondered aloud the ability of Bong Pineda to finance STL operators given license by the PCSO and edge out other applicants.
This has resulted in a one-man show, he added.
While he estimated that the monthly STL gross sales is P7 billion or P84 million annually, very little has been remitted to the PCSO, Ang said.
Thus, there now calls for the PCSO to directly manage the STL operations and invalidate the permits it had given to current STL operators.
Local government units (LGUs), particularly the barangays can do it, they added.
Ang and Xandra Cam, a new PCSO board member designated by President Duterte, had portrayed PCSO general manager Alexander Balutan as a dictator.
Cam registered before the Lacson committee her complaint that Balutan threatened her because of her exposes on PCSO’s shenanigans.
Balutan, according Cam, allegedly told her that he has 10,000 marines.
Cam also revealed that Samuel Aguilar, an STL operator in Iloilo, is allegedly a drug lord who has links to the North Cotabato drug group and has a linkage with drug lords-inmates at the National Bureau of Prisons in Muntinglupa city,
She claimed that Balutan is a good friend of Aguilar.
Asked by Lacson if there are actually 10,000 Marines,
Anselmo Simeon Patron Pinili said what he knows is that the Marine Corps has a complement of less than 10,000.
At the close of the public hearing and answering a query whether Pineda would be invited to his next public hearing, Lacson said the probable answer of Pineda is that he does not know “jueteng.”
Lacson told reporters that his committee would be deliberating on the STL issue but that one consideration is that this issue might be considered if when there are concrete solutions surrounding the STL.
On a testimony that STL operators or their agents bringing boxes of money for assigned recipients of STL operations in the provincial levels, Lacson said “this is a microcosm or representative of what is going on all over.”
“There is corruption involved,” he added.
The Lacson committee hearing is focused on ‘’controversies in the PCSO.’’
Senator Ping Lacson, Chairman of the Committe on Games and Amusements listens as PCSO's Ms. Sandra Cam speaks during the 2nd joint public hearing of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Controversy at the Senate of the Philippines in Pasay City, Feb 12, 2018. (MBPHOTO.CAMILLE ANTE)
“He is operating in many provinces and many guerilla and bookie operations, Dapat lang (It should be),’’ Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson, committee chairman, told Senate reporters after a four-hour hearing.
Asked if the observation of Charlie “Atong” Ang, a gambling operator, that STL was designed to fail, Lacson replied in the negative.
He, nevertheless, said gambling lords are in the STL business because they are able to fix the computations so that they remit a very small amount to the PCSO and amass huge profits.
The National Bureau of Investigation has stated that illegal STL operations with gambling lords behind them rake in P51 billion annually in potential revenues for the PCSO.
In today’s public hearing, Lacson said witnesses pointed to so many weak systems and procedures that allow corruption to take place at the PCSO.
Rep. Romeo M. Acop, a Philippine Military Academy (PMA) alumnus like Lacson, rued that the profitable operations of the STL has short-circuited the anti-crime functions of the Philippine National Police, Lacson was a former PNP chief.
He said Ang is right when he said the PCSO has been corrupted.
Antonio M. Bago, a former police officer who was alleged to operate in Camarines Sur, testified that he was allowed to operate STL in Camarines Sur and had conversed with a relative of Bong Pineda.
As such, Bago said he knew Bong Pineda was behind the STL operations in Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Bataan, Santiago city, Leyte Sur and Zambales.
Lacson wondered aloud the ability of Bong Pineda to finance STL operators given license by the PCSO and edge out other applicants.
This has resulted in a one-man show, he added.
While he estimated that the monthly STL gross sales is P7 billion or P84 million annually, very little has been remitted to the PCSO, Ang said.
Thus, there now calls for the PCSO to directly manage the STL operations and invalidate the permits it had given to current STL operators.
Local government units (LGUs), particularly the barangays can do it, they added.
Ang and Xandra Cam, a new PCSO board member designated by President Duterte, had portrayed PCSO general manager Alexander Balutan as a dictator.
Cam registered before the Lacson committee her complaint that Balutan threatened her because of her exposes on PCSO’s shenanigans.
Balutan, according Cam, allegedly told her that he has 10,000 marines.
Cam also revealed that Samuel Aguilar, an STL operator in Iloilo, is allegedly a drug lord who has links to the North Cotabato drug group and has a linkage with drug lords-inmates at the National Bureau of Prisons in Muntinglupa city,
She claimed that Balutan is a good friend of Aguilar.
Asked by Lacson if there are actually 10,000 Marines,
Anselmo Simeon Patron Pinili said what he knows is that the Marine Corps has a complement of less than 10,000.
At the close of the public hearing and answering a query whether Pineda would be invited to his next public hearing, Lacson said the probable answer of Pineda is that he does not know “jueteng.”
Lacson told reporters that his committee would be deliberating on the STL issue but that one consideration is that this issue might be considered if when there are concrete solutions surrounding the STL.
On a testimony that STL operators or their agents bringing boxes of money for assigned recipients of STL operations in the provincial levels, Lacson said “this is a microcosm or representative of what is going on all over.”
“There is corruption involved,” he added.
The Lacson committee hearing is focused on ‘’controversies in the PCSO.’’