"As leaders of the Church, we declare our opposition to the establishment and operation of a casino component at the hotel-resort in Barangay Poro Point, City of San Fernando, La Union,’’ Rillera said.

He said although they commend the efforts of the provincial government to push for the continued development of the province, they believe that introducing casino to the people or the place is no longer necessary.

"It was not necessary at all. Progress can be achieved even without it. We are against the promotion of economic sufficiency through gambling,’’ the prelate said.

Rillera said they are against any kind of gambling because of the following reasons:

It threatens the moral values that ought to shape and form the human person into a responsible and God-fearing man.

There can never be a justification for promoting gambling under the pretext of generating jobs for the unemployed or even raising the standard of living of the people.

Gambling would also only spawn other evils such as prostitution, drug abuse, AIDS, and all sorts of crime, he said.