PCSO faces shortage of lottery tickets?

MANILA, Philippines - A Makati City court has ordered an Australian firm to deliver rolls of thermal paper to the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) to avert a possible shortage of lottery tickets.

In a one-page order dated Dec. 2, Judge Winlove Dumayas of the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 59 ordered TMA Australia to deliver the thermal paper to the PCSO warehouse at Camp Aguinaldo for its Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao terminals so as not to disrupt its lottery operations.

“Without going deeper into the merits of the case, in compliance with the writ of injunction earlier issued and to avoid the disruption of the lottery operation of PCSO, which is vested with public interest, this court orders plaintiff (TMA Australia) to immediately deliver to PCSO the following papers…” the court ruled.

It also ordered the PCSO “to accept and pay the items in accordance with the prices set forth in the joint venture agreement.

The case stemmed from the cancellation of the PCSO board of the 25-year agreement it signed with TMA Australia in 2009.

On May 13, 2011, the court issued a writ of preliminary and mandatory injunction, stopping the cancellation of the contract.  However, the PCSO refused to comply with the injunction and still revoked its contract with TMA Australia.

The Australian firm had asked the court to cite PCSO chairman Margarita Juico for indirect contempt for refusing to honor the injunction.

Citing public interest, the court ordered the delivery of thermal paper by the TMA to the PCSO warehouse last Nov. 6 after PCSO assistant general manager Remeliza Gabuyo admitted that the lottery papers would only last up to the first quarter of 2014.

Former solicitor general Romeo de la Cruz, counsel for TMA Australia, said that after the issuance of the injunction in April 2011, his client sent several letters to PCSO, requesting for the issuance of purchase orders but all were unheeded.

De la Cruz said the PCSO violated its agreement with TMA Australia when it entered into a contract with Pacific Online Systems Corp. for the establishment of additional lotto outlets and the supply of lotto equipment, including bet slips and thermal paper.

He said the Australian company invested $400 million in the Philippines when it transferred its manufacturing plant here from China in 2009.

He added that TMA Australia is the only paper plant set up in the country to use high-tech machinery in the production of thermal paper and other paper products.