Until further notice, there will be no lines at thousands of lotto outlets across the country as gaming operations have been suspended by President Rodrigo Duterte since Friday because of what he claimed was serious corruption.
The president had ordered the closure of all gaming activities of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), saying he is already fed up with the reports of massive corruption that has long been besetting the agency.
Duterte’s order came just days after the assumption of Royina Garma as the new PCSO general manager. Garma, the former director of the Cebu City Police Office, may have found out the massive corruption inside the agency and immediately reported it to the president.
The move of the president is bad news for those who patronize the lotto and other gaming activities of the PCSO. For the next few days or weeks, they can no longer place their bets for a chance to win the jackpot.
Let’s see if the Duterte administration succeeds in ridding the PCSO of corrupt employees and officials. Of course, we do hope the government is really serious in its campaign of cleaning up the agency like he did in other government offices.
While we understand Duterte’s seriousness in dealing with corruption at the PCSO, there’s really no need for him to close the gaming operations of the agency for the sake of thousands working in lotto outlets who might lose their jobs.
Duterte can always push through with his mission of aggressively cleaning up the agency without really affecting the thousands and their families who depend on its operations through the lotto and other gaming activities.
The PCSO is just one of many government agencies that have been seriously saddled with massive corruption for decades. And like the other offices, the government does not have to close some its functions in its crusade against corrupt officials and employees.