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(SDN) — A group calling itself Filipinos for Peace, Justice, and Progress Movement (FPJPM) has filed a “graft and plunder” complaint at the Office of the Ombudsman against some officials of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).
The complaint also includes a private company, the Pacific Online System Corporation (POSC), the service provider for the charity agency’s e-Lotto game, according to thecitypost.net in a news report published Tuesday, June 11, 2024. FPJPM questioned the agreement between the PCSO and the POSC on e-Lotto, which granted the latter a 14 percent commission as mentioned in their Memorandum of Agreement (MOA).
Not so fast, PCSO Vice Chairman and General Manager Melquiades “Mel” A. Robels, seems to say in response.
In a statement the gaming agency sent to reporters, he warns of counter charges against those behind the case.
“We will not take this matter setting down. We will unmask those behind this dubious complaint and file appropriate counter charges,” Robles emphasized.
The charity agency characterized the FPJPM’s complaint as “highly questionable” even as he raised suspicions that a former top official of the PCSO might be behind it.
It can be recalled that President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. picked last month a member of the charity agency’s Board of Directors, essentially a promotion, former justice Felix P. Reyes, as new PCSO chairman.
He described the FPJPM’s filing of the complaint as unfortunate because the group did not understand PCSO’s MOA with POSC, adding their “agreement is not final until we get a favorable decision from OGCC.”
But now all issues, he said, that were cited have already been overtaken by events as the “OGCC has already given PCSO a favorable review on the contract we entered into.”
Robles pointed out that the technical rules on the agency’s betting platforms, which include e-Lotto have been approved by the Office of the President (OP).
He further elaborated that the PCSO is conducting e-Lotto anchored on the authority bestowed by the OP in 2021, given that it has sufficient authority and is in a better position to evaluate and approve its technical guidelines on betting platforms for the minimum technical requirements for PCSO games.
“The OP guidance, being an act of the executive, remains valid until amended, revoked, or replaced by its issuing authority,” he emphasized.
“Sound business judgment”
He added that the conduct of e-Lotto is in accordance with the advice of PCSO’s statutory counsel, the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC), which also found the MOA signed on August 30, 2023, POSC, tenable.
The OGCC has already clarified its earlier stand that policy considerations call for the payment of commissions in the form of reasonable costs, at a rate capped by PCSO Board of Directors according to its sound business judgment.
Robles qualified that the e-Lotto is an exercise of the Board’s sound business judgment to increase sales revenues, by expanding the market for PCSO games using online and digital betting platforms.
Similarly, to increase sales revenues, the PCSO Board, in the exercise of its sound business judgment, previously approved the increase of the minimum guaranteed amount for jackpot prizes for lotto games to increase sales revenues.
As a result, the move by the PCSO Board generated Php879 million sales revenues, net of prizes.
Robles noted that the issues discussed in the Ombudsman complaint were already exhaustively discussed during the previous hearings conducted by both House of Representatives and Senate and were already answered and clarified by the agency.
In an earlier statement to the media, GM Robles said the complaints were already overtaken by events because the OGCC had already approved the agreement. — EDD K. USMAN (/)