Pacific Online seeks SC intervention in lottery row

MANILA, Philippines - Pacific Online Systems Corp. has sought the intervention of the Supreme Court to allow it to proceed with the installation of online lottery equipment in Luzon.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday, Pacific Online said it filed before the High Court a petition for certiorari to restrain the Makati Regional Trial Court from implementing an order barring it from allegedly encroaching on rival firm Philippine Gaming & Management Corp.’s geographic franchise.

PGMC won the bidding to provide lottery equipment for the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office in 1993 covering the whole Philippines, but the government decided to award to Pacific Online the Visayas-Mindanao territory. PGMC was given only Luzon as its exclusive territory.

Sometime this year, however, Pacific Online and the PCSO forged a deal allowing the former to install at least 600 terminals in Luzon.

PGMC, the local gaming unit of Malaysian conglomerate Berjaya, did not take this lightly and asked the Makati RTC to cite in contempt officials of the PCSO for violating the exclusivity agreement over the Luzon area and a prohibition against entering into government contracts without public bidding.

“Pacific Online stands to be prejudiced by the RTC-Makati order despite not having been made a party in PGMC’s petition for indirect contempt, which is a clear violation of its due process rights,” the company said.

In its petition, Pacific Online argued that the writ of preminary injunction was issued despite the clearly erroneous remedy availed of by PGMC, the wanton disregard of Pacific Online’s right to due process of law, and the obvious absence of factual and legal basis for the issuance of the injunctive writ.

In filing the petition, PGMC invoked a provision in the exclusive lease agreement (ELA) that supposedly confers on it exclusive rights in providing the equipment for PCSO’s lottery operations in the Luzon area.