The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) on Tuesday described as dubious and highly questionable the graft and plunder complaint filed before the Ombudsman by a group calling itself Filipinos for Peace, Justice and Progress Movement (FPJPM), against some of the PCSO’s top officials relative to the agency’s e-lotto agreement with a private company.
PCSO general manager Melquiades Robles said he plans to file a legal action against the FPJPM that sued him for the said charges.
The complaint was a part of a smear campaign, he said.
He cited that the issues in the complaint had already been taken up in the congressional and Senate hearings in the House of Representatives and the Senate and that the PCSO had clarified the issues.
“We will not take this matter sitting down. We will unmask those behind this dubious complaint and file appropriate counter-charges against them,” he said.
He said the rules of PCSO on betting platforms had been approved by the Office of the President (OP).
According to Robles, in 2021, the OP issued a memorandum recognizing the PCSO’s authority and deferred to its expertise on matters relating to the implementation of lottery games.
Pursuant to this, he said the PCSO has been conducting e-lotto operations, especially since it is in a better position to evaluate and approve its technical guidelines on betting platforms for the minimum technical requirements for the agency’s games.
“The OP guidance, being an act of the executive, remains valid until amended, revoked, or replaced by its issuing authority,” he said in a statement.
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 Memorandum of Agreement dated August 30, 2023, with Pacific Online System Corporation, 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 the PCSO Board of Directors according to its sound business judgment.
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 P879 million in sales revenues, net of prizes.
In an earlier statement to the media, Robles said the complaints were already superseded by events because the OGCC had already approved the agreement.
He wondered why the past leadership wasn’t included in the complaints, prompting him to theorize that the lawsuit was initiated by the former chairperson.
“It is unfortunate that the FPJPM filed a complaint without understanding the MOA PCSO entered with a service provider. Our agreement is not final until we get a favorable decision from OGCC,” he said.
He stressed: “All issues cited are now overtaken by events as the OGCC has already given PCSO a favorable review on the contract we entered into. This is a gross misrepresentation of facts which we suspect was made by the former chairman who surprisingly was not included in the complaint.”
