‘PCSO overprinted P3-M booklets for Christmas sweepstakes’

A legal battle looms between Alpha Phi Omega International Philippines Inc. (APO) and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) over the alleged overprinting of sweepstakes booklets for the P3-million Special Christmas Sweepstakes Draw last Dec. 16.

APO officials claim that the PCSO violated its contract with them for the special draw by allegedly printing an extra 7,000 booklets in addition to the agreed 35,000 booklets for sale to the public.

APO and PCSO earlier entered into an agreement which stipulates that APO would sell 25,000 booklets costing P500 pesos each on a “considered sold” basis while PCSO would sell the remaining 10,000 booklets.

But APO cited a final sales report signed by Carlos Castillo, manager of the PCSO sales department; Amelia Tansinsin, officer-in-charge of AGM Marketing; Melecio Cabaneros of the PCSO treasury department; and Mario Corral, officer-in-charge of the treasury department, which showed that 40,167 booklets were sold and 1,833 were unsold with total sales proceeds of P14,460,120. The value of unsold tickets was P659,880, APO said.

APO officials said “the sales report and certification issued by PCSO constituted an admission that it had printed tickets in contravention of the provisions of the agreement.”

APO national executive director Ernesto Alcanzare said that “PCSO printed, distributed and sold 42,000 or 20 percent more booklets than what was agreed upon to be printed, distributed and sold to the public.”

“This considerably reduced the chances of ticket buyers of winning the jackpot from 1/350,000 to 1/420,000 per ticket,” he explained.

In an interview with The STAR, however, Castillo said APO officials are apparently skirting their obligation to settle around P7.4 million to the PCSO for some 5,000 unsold booklets.

“They were supposed to sell them in the US but I was informed later by their officials that about 10,000 booklets sent to the US were apprehended by US Customs authorities,” he said.

Castillo also stressed that the 7,000 booklets were mere “additions” and not “overprinting.”

He said that the PCSO’s contract with APO did not cover cases of additional printing which, he said, is dictated by the “law of supply and demand.”

“We resort to additional printing because we also want our vendors to earn more,” he said.

In a letter sent to PCSO chief Sergio Valencia Jr. last Dec. 16, APO national president Magleo Adriano requested the PCSO to exclude the 7,000 additional booklets from the draw at noon of the same date, but the draw went on, APO officials said.

APO later noted that ticket number 464237, an “over-printed” ticket, won the first prize of P3 million, even as five other major prizes also went to owners of tickets from the “over-printed” batch.

APO lawyers Marvin Gonong, Luis Paredes, Norma Singson de Leon, Felix Marinas Jr., Philip Paredes, Jose Armand Arevalo and Arlene Gonzales said in their Dec. 20 letter to Valencia that PCSO “must accept responsibility for the overprinting of 7,000 booklets of tickets.”

They told Valencia that APO will still honor its commitment to the PCSO, subject to conditions that are “fair and reasonable.”

The lawyers said that “APO will pay on the following conditions: PCSO will deduct the value of the 7,000 overprinted booklets from the obligation of our client; PCSO will assume responsibility for refunds of tickets sold by our client and to execute a written warranty that the PCSO shall hold our client free and harmless from any and all claims by third parties arising from the overprinting; and PCSO will issue a public statement, with multi-media exposure in all major media entities at its expense, that our client had no participation in the overprinting, distribution and sale of the 7,000 booklets.”

But instead of heeding the request of their lawyers, Alcanzare said the PCSO furnished them with a statement of account indicating that they (APO) still had an outstanding balance of P7,460,020.76.

The PCSO also demanded APO to settle its obligation, otherwise appropriate cases will be filed in court to protect the interest of the sweepstakes agency.