{"id":86540,"date":"2017-01-24T04:06:13","date_gmt":"2017-01-24T09:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=86540"},"modified":"2017-01-24T04:06:13","modified_gmt":"2017-01-24T09:06:13","slug":"lgus-pnp-told-focus-on-illegal-gambling-not-just-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/01\/24\/lgus-pnp-told-focus-on-illegal-gambling-not-just-drugs\/","title":{"rendered":"LGUs, PNP told: Focus on illegal gambling not just drugs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"LGUs,<\/a>
LGUs, PNP told: Focus on illegal gambling not just drugs (Photo: Senator Ping Lacson\/ Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA\u2014 Illegal gambling should be given as much priority as illegal drugs, a senator told representatives from local government units (LGUs) and Philippine National Police (PNP) in a hearing on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Sen. Panfilo \u201cPing\u201d Lacson, during a senate hearing on the proposal to increase penalties for illegal gambling activities, said LGUs and PNP should coordinate to assure that illegal gambling does not proliferate.<\/p>\n

Lacson, however, lamented that what is happening in the opposite\u2014illegal gambling is rampant because of LGUs and PNP acting in collusion with gambling operators.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s be frank with each other. Illegal gambling would not proliferate if there is no connivance with police personnel on the take. The problem is collusion among police, LGUs and operators,\u201d Lacson said.<\/p>\n

He pointed out that if LGUs and PNP coordinated to go after illegal gambling, particularly those using Small town Lottery (STL) operations as front, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) would have higher revenues.<\/p>\n

PCSO established the STL to combat illegal numbers game, \u201cjueteng\u201d.<\/p>\n

The senator also stressed the importance of amending the over 80-year-old PCSO charter to \u201cto adapt to the times\u201d and allow expansion of STL operations which could generate additional revenue for the office.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to come out with a better PCSO charter with more efficient charity collection,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Ismael Sueno, meanwhile, admitted that operations against illegal gambling diminished because of the campaign against illegal drugs.<\/p>\n

Sueno, however, vowed to heed the advice of Lacson and consult with other stakeholders to also prioritize illegal gambling.<\/p>\n

Although he stressed that Pres. Rodrigo Duterte himself wanted to address the country\u2019s problems \u201cone at a time\u201d he looked forward to discussing illegal gambling with the President next month.<\/p>\n

“We will implement what is best in order to stop this illegal gambling,” Sueno said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u2014 Illegal gambling should be given as much priority as illegal drugs, a senator told representatives from local government units …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":85581,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,16,95],"tags":[13364,14010,7983],"class_list":["post-86540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-local-government-units","tag-panfilo-ping-lacson","tag-philippine-national-police","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}