Mayor rejects STL’s 3% offer

                                                               Too small!

                                                           

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

DAGUPAN CITY – A mayor in the Fifth Congressional District in Pangasinan snubbed the measly three percent offers by the government run Small Town Lottery (STL) after Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office's General Manager Alexander F. Balutan wrote him for the jueteng- like game to operate in his town.

“I did not attend the meeting called by Major Efren Fajardo at Star Plaza Hotel (in Dagupan City). They can own that three percent. It was small. It’s only for the mayor,” the chief executive, who asked for anonymity, said as he empathized with his vice mayor, nine councilors and the chief of police who were not included on the distribution of percentages from the PCSO’s supervised number game gambling STL.

A poor bettor hopes that her day's bet to the elusive win of a number game Small
Town Lottery could land her a bonanza while a cobradores (collector) writes her bet
number that  she sometimes took from the night's dream and other tell -tale signs.
PHOTO CREDIT: Hataw Tabloid 

"I don't want that my vice mayor and councilors could say something against me that I have my 3 percent while they got nothing," he stressed.

Aside from the modicum sums given to the mayor, two factions of the STL’s franchisee Golden Go Rapid Gaming Corporation (GGRGC) in Pangasinan squabble for official identity.

A photo copy of a Notarized Secretary Notification being circulated among mayors and media men purportedly by GGRGC President Gary James Arenas said that Fajardo and Anthony Ong were no longer members of the GGRGC effective immediately.

The notification was dated May 16, 2017 and signed by Romulus M. Lomboy, GGRGC Corporate Secretary and approved by Arenas.  
In the List of Organic Personnel  of another faction of the GGRGC signed last April 28, 2017 by Jiezl C. Ang, Corporate Secretary, she disclosed there that Fajardo was  the group's Provincial Administrator and Arthur Jose Ang was its Chief Executive Officer.

A mayor in the Fourth Congressional District said the three percent of the STL is inadequate compared to those given by operators of illegal number games Jueteng and Meridien Vista Gaming Corporation (MVGC) Jai Alai.

“Noong Jueteng P600 thousand ako monthly or P20,000 a day ako. Sa akin lang iyon iba din sa vice mayor na 1.5 percent at chief of police na 1.5 percent. Noong Meridiane na P500 thousand ako o P17,000.  Iba rin iyong kay vice mayor and chief of police”.

This huge amount given to the mayor of this almost 100,000 populated first class town was usually given to indigents, supporters, and media men who go to his house or office.

He said when STL replaced Jai-Alai, the vice mayor was at a loss because he have numbers of mistresses and children out of wedlocks he sends to school.

“I gave him the other week ten thousand pesos because he came to me feeling sorry and I pitied him,” the mayor said.

Another high official in the same district said that with the pittance given to the mayor by the franchisee the police would just turned a blind eye for the bookie and the “guerrilla”, slang for illegal sponsor, to operate in their areas.

“At least these sponsors use the same financial breakdown of 7%, 1.5%, and 1.5% to the mayor, vice mayor and councilors, and the chief of police respectively, as jueteng operator gave these public officials in the past,” he cited.

A lieutenant of a mayor in the Fifth Congressional District told media men about the incentives given by the bookie and guerrilla operators where they dangled ten percent of the daily collection to the mayor alone.

STL, just like its predecessors Jueteng and Jai-Alai or Jai-Teng, is a lucrative game of chance that exploits the frailty of mostly ignorant bettors for a get rich quick earning that until now become elusive for them.

A peso bet, according, to STL’s cobradores wins P400.

Daily collection of this number game in a 1 to 38 combination, according to the gambling insiders, runs up to ten million pesos a day in the 44 towns and 4 cities’ Pangasinan.