Haughty

“Haughty” is the word PCSO chair  Margie Juico uses to describe the propensity of Malaysian-owned Philippine Gaming and Management Corporation (PGMC) for taking out full-page advertisements attacking the agency.

Newspaper readers will not have missed those blaring ads. They attack the PCSO awarding contracts to a rival “without any bidding” and allowing that rival to extend its operations into what PGMC unilaterally considers its exclusive contractual territory.

The tactic of public attacks on the PCSO adopted by PGMC might seem totally bad public relations. For 20 years, the company enjoyed the fruits of an extremely profitable partnership with the gaming agency. Today, it seems, the PGMC is hell-bent on biting off the hand that feeds it.

Juico offers a possible reason the Malaysian firm is doing this: they are really objecting to the reduction in the fees charged the charity.

Both PGMC and its rival Pacific Online Systems Corporation (POSC) provide online services for the lottery. PGMC runs most of the system in the Luzon area while POSC covers the Visayas and Mindanao. The competing providers is otherwise desirable, providing benchmarks for efficiency and reliability, much like the two water concessionaires in the metro region.

The rival service providers initially charged a service fee of 10% of total sales made through their systems. Considering the volume of bets taken over the past few years, that service fee no doubt produces handsome profits — money that might otherwise be funneled to the charity services of the PCSO.

Last year, POSC voluntarily offered to lower its charges to 9.85% from June to December. This year, the company further reduced its charges to 7.75% as it renewed its contract with the PCSO. The reduction in service fees will add about P1.3 billion more to the PCSO’s income available for charity. That is not an insignificant amount.

A service charge of 7.75% is now the benchmark for lotto service providers. That is a response not only to POSC’s offer but also to directives issued by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee after public hearings held on the matter last year. That directive was seconded by the COA, which found the 10% service charges too high.

PGMC, however, refuses to budge from the 10% service charge rates stipulated in the original contract. If the thing is not broke, why fix it? Besides, the old service charges produces tons of profit for the Malaysian company. They surely have enough money to splurge on full-page adds.

The PCSO must not allow itself to be bullied by the uncouth tactics of the PGMC. If 7.75% in the new benchmark, then the PCSO should simply enforce that.

If the Malaysian company refuses to meet the new benchmark rate, then it should, plainly and simply, be disqualified from participating in new bidding.

Holding strong

Someone up there, it seems, is obsessed with scoring a 12-0 triumph for the pro-administration senatorial slate. The sorties are being pushed, featuring high government officials who ought to be at their desks, even if the senatorial candidates are not present. The opposition charged the pro-administration campaign has resorted to virtual vote-buying, using all sorts of publicly-funded coupons.

Three candidates of the UNA coalition appear to be holding strong in the win-column. These are JV Ejercito-Estrada, Nancy Binay and Jack Enrile.

Pro-administration operatives, as expected, have trained their guns on the three to accomplish the 12-0 scenario. A low-rating pro-administration candidate found the temerity to challenge top-rating Nancy Binay to a public debate. Decades-old rumors about Jack Enrile have been resurrected. Much political hay is being made about JV’s negligible British Virgin Islands account.

The strongest UNA candidate, so far, is JV Ejercito-Estrada. He also has the superior political record of the three.

JV was a successful entrepreneur before he entered the world of politics. In his three terms as mayor of San Juan, he applied his entrepreneurial skills to the fiscal management of the city. The city’s income was P300 million when he became mayor. It rose to P1.1 billion by the time he ended his term.

Over the last three years, JV represented San Juan in Congress. Although a freshman legislator, JV was quick to learn the ropes, introducing several pieces of innovative legislation drawing mainly from his insights as an entrepreneur.

JV’s strong showing in the senatorial surveys is due, no doubt, to the remarkably persistent Estrada voting base. That base vote brought Loi and Jinggoy to the Senate after the abbreviated Erap presidency.

How that base vote continues to hold 12 years after the father’s disgrace is a subject we still need to understand better. At any rate, it is clear that the Estrada base vote keeps JV on relatively safe footing at this stage of the race where negative campaigning is expected to accelerate sharply.

Those who think it is still possible to yank JV out of the win-column by means of black propaganda will be disheartened by the candidate’s work ethic. JV is not relying on the Estrada base vote alone. He has managed to build an effective nationwide campaign organization and seems to be barnstorming all his waking hours. Few other candidates can match the passion and determination JV has put into this campaign.

The last stage of a nationwide campaign usually focuses on nailing down the command votes, securing bailiwicks and winning the endorsements of local powerbrokers. On these aspects of the campaign, too, JV appears determined to acquire the edge.