Small-town lottery revived

The government announced yesterday the revival of the small-town lottery under the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).

The lottery is seen as a replacement for jueteng, a popular but illegal numbers game that critics say was a major source of corruption.

Curiously, a former Malacañang staffer, Michaelangelo Zuce, who accused President Arroyo last year of bribing election officials in exchange for helping her win the 2004 presidential election, will be a member of a team that will monitor the conduct of the small-town lottery.

Malacañang officials said they had no knowledge of Zuce’s return to the Arroyo administration.

The small-town lottery (STL) was introduced during the administration of former President Corazon Aquino as an alternative to jueteng but did not last against the illegal numbers game’s huge popularity.

Puerto Princesa Mayor Edward Hagedorn, who headed the defunct National Anti-Jueteng Task Force, proposed the reintroduction of the small-town lottery to curb jueteng.

Hagedorn also proposed that a team be formed to monitor the small-town lottery to ensure it is implemented properly. He said this was crucial to its success as a replacement for jueteng.

Other members of the team are police official Wally Sembrano and Tony Reyes, a member of the anti-jueteng task force.

Hagedorn proposed the revival of the small-town lottery in his exit report last September. The lottery is reportedly now being pilot-tested in Quezon province, Quezon City and Angeles City in Pampanga.

The game’s mechanics are said to be as simple and bettor-friendly as jueteng, and draws must be transparent to prevent cheating.

"It should allow the local governments to operate the game under contract with and supervision by the PCSO, and be made accountable for the game’s profitability," Hagedorn said.

The PCSO was tight-lipped about the small-town lottery, deferring all comment to Hagedorn.

PCSO chairman Sergio Valencia said they have an agreement that Hagedorn would be the designated spokesman. "STL is a lottery and it falls under our mandate… but the spokesperson on this is Mayor Hagedorn."

Local governments should be given a share of the revenues which Hagedorn said they could use to fund civic projects.

He proposed that the PCSO draw up the lottery mechanics because of its experience in handling lotteries.

While accepting the influential Roman Catholic Church’s view against gambling, Hagedorn argued that gambling is part of human nature and that lack of jobs and poor pay will continue to force people to look to jueteng as a means of extra earnings.

Offering a legal alternative to jueteng will also give jueteng operators no more reason to bribe officials and police to look the other way.

"There is an ocean of difference between STL and jueteng. The proceeds of the former go to the government while those of the latter go to the pockets of jueteng lords, thereby enriching them and putting them in a position to bribe those in government," Hagedorn explained.

The task of going after jueteng operators is now with the Philippine National Police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.

PNP chief Director General Arturo Lomibao has virtually dissolved the Anti-Illegal Gambling Operation Task Force, said police spokesman Senior Superintendent Samuel Pagdilao.

Chief Superintendent Antonio Nañas, the task force’s head, was appointed director of the PNP’s National Operations Center.

"We believe the CIDG is the appropriate unit to go after jueteng operations," he said.

Who is Zuce?

It remains unclear how Zuce — a former aide to Mrs. Arroyo’s political adviser who in mid-2005 came forward to testify that he had personal knowledge of the President cheating her way to victory in the 2004 presidential election — returned to government service.

But administration officials disavowed any Malacañang hand in Zuce’s involvement in the small-town lottery monitoring team.

"This is the first time I learned about it. We would like to defer any comment," Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye told a press conference.

"I don’t know what this is all about," said one top administration official, who declined to be identified. "We’ll have to see what his plans are."

Bunye defended Hagedorn’s proposal to revive the small-town lottery.

"I believe the intention of Hagedorn is to be able to provide livelihood to those who have been displaced because of the anti- jueteng operations," he said.

Hagedorn remains Mrs. Arroyo’s anti-jueteng czar, Bunye emphasized, "and he has, I think, achieved enough to be able to make a dent in these anti-jueteng operations."

Accompanied by his lawyer, Zuce told an August 2005 press conference that Mrs. Arroyo met with several election officials at her house in Quezon City where he witnessed the wife of a suspected jueteng baron distribute bribes to the officials.

"What I know is that President Arroyo is not merely the beneficiary of the cheating in the 2004 elections," Zuce told reporters. "She had knowledge and direct participation in it."

Zuce added that he also paid bribes to Mindanao election officials — with money from his office — to ensure Mrs. Arroyo’s May 2004 victory.

Zuce claimed that Mrs. Arroyo had a "secret dinner" with 27 regional and provincial officials in January 2004 at her house in posh La Vista Subdivision in Katipunan, Quezon City.

After dinner, Pampanga provincial board member Lilia Pineda, an Arroyo friend and wife of suspected illegal gambling lord Bong Pineda, allegedly distributed envelopes containing P30,000 to each official.

He claimed that the meeting, as well as the bribe offer, was done in coordination with former election official Virgilio Garcillano, then the Mindanao election chief. He said Garcillano is a distant relative.

Mrs. Arroyo, who was then facing impeachment over vote-rigging and other allegations, denied Zuce’s charges.

Zuce’s allegations compounded accusations that Mrs. Arroyo’s husband, eldest son and brother-in-law took payoffs from jueteng barons. — With Paolo Romero, Sheila Crisostomo, Cecille Suerte Felipe