BY MIKE GUIMBATAN JR.
BAGUIO CITY – The STL franchise application in this mountain resort city is virtually dead. Councilor Richard Cariño, chairman of the city council’s committee on games and amusement, said this after no one of the STL proponents appeared at the public hearing held Wednesday morning at City Hall. More than 200 multi-sectoral leaders attended the public hearing on the proposed Small Town Lottery (STL) franchise in the city. Over a dozen spokespersons took turns in lambasting for over two hours the evils of legal or illegal gambling.
The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), which oversees STL operations, issues franchises upon endorsement of local government units. PCSO proposed the STL game after it received requests from the mayors to assist their constituents who have lost their jobs after the government intensified its campaign against the illegal numbers game called "jueteng." Green2 Corp. has applied for an STL franchise to operate in Baguio.
In a rare display of unity, religious leaders belonging to the main evangelical Christian, fellowships and pentecostal groups, and even the Muslim faith expressed their opposition to STL, citing moral and spiritual issues against the issuance of a permit for the operation of the jueteng-like STL.
Groups of academicians, senior citizens, women, and boy scouts and girl scouts emotionally relayed to at least six councilors present their dismay over attempts to operate STL in the city. Catholic Bishop Carlito Cenzon of Baguio City said he was elated over the united front put up against legal gambling, but expressed frustration over jueteng operators who continue to take advantage of poverty to make money.
Cenzon lamented that jueteng can not be stopped as long as the Catholic faithful do not believe in the teachings of their priests and continue to patronize jueteng. The catholic leader chided City Mayor Reinaldo Bautista for his comment that casino would be okay in Baguio for as long as it provides thousand jobs. Cenzon said that it is bad language because money is the one talking.
"The end never justifies the means," Cenzon said. Imam Bedejim Abdulah representing the Muslim community in the city cited the moral corruption caused by gambling. Lawyer Alex Bangsoy, spokesman of a multisectoral group calling themselves BLIST Transformation Network, disputed arguments citing STL benefits. No one stood up to rebut the anti-STL argument.
All six councilors present avoided making public comments, but Councilors Galo Weygan and Poppo Cosalan, who are both fellowship pastors, manifested their opposition. The two were joined by Councilor Betty Lourdes Tabanda who is closely identified with the Christian Women’s League and other women’s groups who expressed opposition to the STL operation.
Earlier, various sectors in this mountain resort city led by religious groups launched an all-out campaign to rally the people in opposing a plan for the operation here of the government-sanctioned controversial STL.
The Transformation Network, formerly known as the Baguio Multi-Sectoral Group, maintained its stand that no form of gambling should be allowed to operate in the city, saying the proposed STL would only add to the scourge of the still flourishing jueteng and the newly created "bingoteng," a combination of bingo and jueteng. -- With report by Dexter See
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