Palace to review Bingo 2-Ball deal

Malacañang is set to review the Bingo 2-Ball contract forged between the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) and the Prominent Management and Consultancy firm of presidential friend and suspected gambling lord Charlie "Atong" Ang.

Meanwhile, an opposition congressman said yesterday Ang stands to make about P18.5 billion a year by running Bingo 2-Ball, the government’s version of jueteng.

The plan to review the contract came on the heels of an admission by a Pagcor official that they implemented Bingo 2-Ball, which is meant to eradicate illegal jueteng operations nationwide, through a mere verbal approval from Malacañang.

Lawyer Emilia Padua, managing head of Pagcor’s entertainment games and Bingo 2-Ball project, told reporters that they will submit next week for the President’s approval the provisions of the contract, including the sharing scheme for the proceeds.

Padua admitted it was also Pagcor which offered the Bingo-2 Ball operations to Ang.

"We have verbal clearance from the Office of the President. We were given the go-signal to proceed," Padua said.

Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora was flabbergasted upon knowing that under the contract, Pagcor’s 23 percent share will be deposited in the private account of Ang.

"We did not know this," Zamora said.

Zamora said the provision alone makes it imperative to go over the contract anew.

For his part, Press Secretary Ricardo Puno Jr. defended the Bingo-2 Ball project by saying it will eradicate jueteng and raise revenues of as much as P100 million a month for the cash-strapped government.

"Even if some people want to talk about the shady background of Mr. Ang, he was actually getting a lot of money going to the government for the first time to tap this resource," Puno said.

During a press briefing at the Palace, Padua said the 23 percent government share from Bingo-2 Ball would be broken down as follows" five percent goes to Bureau of Internal Revenue as franchise tax, five percent retained by Pagcor, six percent goes to the President’s social funds, and seven percent to Prominent.

Rep. Juan Miguel Zubiri (Lakas, Bukidnon) said that under the contract between Prominent and Pagcor, the former takes 77 percent of all proceeds from the jueteng variant, while the government would be content with 23 percent.

He said since Pagcor estimates that its annual income from Bingo-2 Ball would be at least P24 billion, then Prominent, which Ang owns, stands to make P18.5 billion.

He said the sharing formula was revealed by Pagcor head Alice Reyes and Ang in a recent Senate hearing.

He said Ang’s agreement with Pagcor allows him to deposit collections from Bingo-2 Ball in his personal bank account before remitting the government’s 23 percent share.

"This means that the determination and verification of the daily sales are done by Ang himself. The impression we get is that Ang has been given a carte blanche authority to operate Bingo-2 Ball," he stressed.

The presidential friend prides himself as a Pagcor consultant. He is also reportedly running the jai alai games.

Zubiri accused Pagcor of violating the law and its own charter in launching Bingo-2 Ball and entering into a contract with Ang that is grossly disadvantageous to the government.

He said Presidential Decree 1602, the law banning illegal gambling, declares "jueteng or any of its derivatives or any game that closely resembles it" as illegal.

"Pagcor has never been shy in praising that its latest baby is an exact replica of jueteng. It is in fact jueteng in all its aspects – the betting, the combination of numbers to be chosen, the odds, and the raffle," he said.

The only difference between the two is that jueteng is illegal, while Bingo-2 Ball is the legal version, he stressed.

As for the "onerous" sharing agreement between Pagcor and Ang, the Lakas congressman said it violates the Pagcor charter which limits to 10 percent service fee payments to any management firm that the gambling agency may tap.

"Pagcor was dealt a bad hand right at its own table," he said.

Zubiri and other opposition congressmen led by Minority Leader Feliciano Belmonte Jr. earlier described the raging jueteng war involving Ang and Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson as a fight over billions in illegal gambling proceeds.

Several lawmakers, including Sen. Robert Jaworski and Rep. Federico Sandoval II (Lakas, Malabon-Navotas), have separate petitions pending in the Supreme Court questioning Pagcor’s decision to go into jai alai and gambling activities such as jueteng which at present are illegal.

Pagcor claims that it can go into any game of chance, whether legal or illegal.

Sandoval has urged the high court to stop Pagcor’s gambling mania.