MANILA, Philippines — Members of the 1,500-strong Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) Sweepstakes Employees Union (SEU) will again color the PCSO red with their shirts Friday to continue their silent protest against a proposal to give to the private sector the operation of the highly-popular on-line lotto games.

This would be the second time many of the SEU members will don their red shirts to show their opposition to the privatization proposal as they fear many would lose their jobs once lotto operation is privatized.

It could be recalled that administration ally Sen. Franklin Drilon proposed the privatization of lotto operation to prevent the fund mess that occurred in the previous administration.

Understandably, this does not go well with PCSO employees who may face loss of jobs if privatization is pushed through.

Lotto operation – which includes Grand Lotto 6/55, Super Lotto 6/49, Mega Lotto 6/45, and Lotto 6/42 -- entails several manpower.

All together, lotto games earn yearly billions of pesos of revenue -- over P27 billion in 2010 alone -- part of which is for the government's medical programs, health services, and charity of national character.

Chris Bautista, SEU president who works at the Internal Audit Department (PCSO-IAD), confirmed to the Manila Bulletin that the union members for the second Friday would again don their red shirts with various slogans.

The slogans they will carry, he said, include "No to privatization" and "No to tarnishing PCSO image."