There are reports reaching the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) that some individuals or groups are using the Small Town Lottery (STL) to entice aspiring businessmen who want to enter the operations because they know it’s legal and it will help many people.
I heard from certain individuals that there are people coming to them, offering help to secure an STL franchise, but it should be a “lock-in,” and they will be the ones to work it out with their alleged contacts inside PCSO.
First and foremost, the PCSO does not call it a “franchise,” but the agency gives authorization or privilege to a corporation to operate STL in a certain province or chartered city.
A company given the privilege to operate is called Authorized Agent Corporation or AAC (or Authorized STL Agent or ASA in the new implementing rules and regulations of STL). In every province or chartered city, only one STL agent can operate.
Second, what is this lock-in scam being perpetrated by people using the STL of PCSO?
Allegedly, these “lock-in racketeers” approach a businessman or a certain corporation interested to bid for STL. Then they offer to lock them in by asking them to “invest” from P50 million up to the amount of the Presumptive Monthly Retain Receipts of one province or chartered city, and these racketeers will find a way inside the PCSO to secure the
businessman’s or corporation’s authority to operate.
Now that we know how these racketeers operate, the PCSO Board under Chairman Anselmo Simeon P. Pinili should conduct an investigation to identify the alleged perpetrators. Otherwise, the reputation of Board members will be tarnished. Why? Because the Board decides when it comes to the public bidding of applicants who want to operate an STL.
As for PCSO General Manager Alexander F. Balutan, I’m sure he won’t take this sitting down. He should stop these people who are using the PCSO to advance their own vested interests.
Do you know who these people are? I’m pretty sure, President Duterte will publicly humiliate these people in front of PCSO officials and employees if there is truth to these reports.
E-mail: fetad@yahoo.com