The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) on Tuesday confirmed that it has a P100 million confidential fund to run after illegal gaming activities.
During a briefing with lawmakers on PCSO plans, programs, and strategies for 2024, PCSO Assistant General Manager Lauro Patiag made the admission after Surigao del Norte Rep. Ace Barbers’ inquiry on PCSO’s thrust to stop illegal gambling.
Patiag said the confidential fund is under the jurisdiction of the Office of the General Manager of the PCSO. “The Office of the Chairman manages the confidential fund,” he said.
According to Patiag, the use of confidential funds is in compliance with a joint circular.
The joint circular was issued on January 8, 2015, by the Commission on Audit, Department of Budget and Management, Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Governance Commission for Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations, and the Department of National Defense.
The circular refers to confidential expenses as those expenses pertaining to or related to surveillance activities in civilian government agencies that are intended to support the mandate or operations of the agency.
For his part, PCSO General Manager’s Office Executive Assistant Reymar Santiago said the fund is spent on agency’s information gathering.
“If we talk about policy decisions, we have a budget for this from the confidential fund from which we gather information regarding illegal gambling activities in the provinces,” he added.
“With regards to policy regarding illegal numbers, there is no particular policy for that, but we do coordinate the information we receive with the law enforcement agencies because PCSO does not have law enforcement power,” Santiago explained.
Moreover, Barbers said the Small Town Lottery (STL) is really a cover for the illegal game known as “swertres” in Mindanao and the Visayas.
“If they have a confidential fund for the purpose of assisting the government in eradicating illegal gambling, they are not performing well because there is still illegal gambling. It is logical to say that the proliferation of illegal gambling in the country is because of lax policy on this,” Barbers pointed out.
Due to the confidential fund’s poor utilization, Barbers instructed the PCSO to submit a report on how the agency is spending its fund to combat illegal gaming activities.
Earlier, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) assured that the allocation for confidential and intelligence funds in the 2024 proposed budget will be covered by circulars and will be properly accounted for.
Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman has said the joint circular identifies the projects and programs that can be funded using CIF, pointing out a section of the joint circular detailing the disbursement procedures for the funds.
According to the budget chief, there is a P120 million increase in the confidential and intelligence funds, with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), Anti-Money Laundering Council, and Presidential Security Group (PSG) receiving additional allocations.
Meanwhile, the PCSO has expressed confidence that it will surpass its revenue target for 2024 and raise more funds for various charity programs.
The PCSO estimated that its sales for 2024 could reach P60.1 billion. The agency has pegged its target for 2023 at P53.23 billion.
