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By LITO RULONA
Correspondent

THE Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) has listed down 26 illegal lotto outlets in at least 15 barangays in the city.

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This was disclosed by PCSO manager for northern Mindanao Raul Regondola when he faced the city council on Monday in connection with the dramatic drop in state lottery revenues in the region. Because of this, PCSO has decided to reduce its charity funds in the region by 50 percent.

Regondola said some of the illegal outlets could be found in Puerto, Bugo, Tablon, Cugman, Gusa, Lapasan, Camaman-an, Carmen, Nazareth, Balulang, Macabalan, Bonbon, Bulua, Lumbia, Patag, and areas near the public markets.

He told councilors a member of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) is suspected to be operating an illegal outlet.

Regondola said records show that since 2013, PCSO revenues in the region started to decline due to illegal operations.

“We will act after we validate this information. As a matter of fact, I already instructed police stations to immediately act in the areas mentioned,” said city police director Senior Supt. Faro Antonio Olaguera.

Olaguera said the police have pressed charges against a number of people arrested. Olaguera said that last year alone, police made 72 arrests, and 30 cases were filed. He said some got off the hook due to lack of evidence.

Councilor Enrico Salcedo expressed his disappointment, and called on the city police to exert more effort.

Meanwhile, Cagayan de Oro Press Club (COPC) president Jerry Orcullo opined that the only way to get rid of the illegal lotto outlets is to “kill the snake not by not cutting the tail but by smashing the head.”

“These illegal outlets are dependent on the PCSO lottery. And so stop the PCSO lottery, and there will no more be any illegal outlet. Let’s not blackmail the people by saying that without PCSO, the government can no longer help the poor by providing them medical aid. If that’s the case, then we might as well abolish the DOH (Department of Health). Let’s abolish PCSO instead because all these illegal outlets are its by-products. Face it, the PCSO is the queen ant in the Philippine gambling colony,” said Orcullo.

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