Spanish gaming firm defends Nueva Vizcaya operations

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya – A Spanish gaming firm, which is facing criticisms from Church-led anti-gambling advocates, has defended its operations as “lawful, legal and aboveboard.”

Speaking through its legal counsels, lawyers Raymond Fortun and Angelo Santos, Meridien Vista Gaming Corp. said charges that its operations resemble jueteng and that it needed the approval of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) were “erroneous.”

“Such an assumption is misplaced, perhaps due to the wrong information received from the PCSO,” the lawyers stated in their letter to the provincial board, which had endorsed Meridien’s entry in the province.

“(Meridien) is a domestic corporation… under Philippine laws, duly licensed and authorized to conduct gaming operations (through a franchise) from CEZA (Cagayan Economic Zone Authority)… (which was) created through Republic Act 7922,” the lawyers said.

Recently, Camp Crame-based anti-gambling Task Force Maverick raided Meridien’s offices here and arrested its bet collectors and employees.

The raids took place after Bayombong Bishop Ramon Villena charged that Meridien’s operations were no different from jueteng and called on police to do something against illegal gambling in his archdiocese or else “I will seek (the attention) of higher authorities.”

Earlier, Villena alleged that Charlie “Atong” Ang, a Meridien consultant, and lawyer Constantino Joson, regional director of the National Bureau of Investigation, tried to give him “cash gifts” during his birthday last March to soften his stance against the gaming firm. Both, however, denied this. – Charlie Lagasca