By NITZ ARANCON Correspondent THE local Roman Catholic archdiocese on Tuesday started flexing its muscles as it stepped up its campaign against the plan to open a casino at Limketkai center. The group started what is expected to be a series of public fora at the Jesuitun Xavier University, the same day it released an anti-casino pastoral letter signed by Archbishop Antonio Ledesma. “You cannot serve both God and money,” Rev. Coke Daryl Prieto, assistant deacon of the parish church in Barangay Lumbia. Prieto read Ledesma’s Feb. 25 pastoral letter which reads in part: “We cannot turn a blind eye to the negative effects that gambling institutions will create in our society: to our people, to the young, to families, especially those who are poor, or those who have just enough for their survival.  As the planned location for the casino is at the heart of the city, it will be highly inviting for Cagayanons to enter it. And because it is in front of an educational institution and near places of worship, it could result in the erosion of the value system of our young people.” Ledesma made the local archdiocese’s position on the casino plan clear:
  • to denounce illegal gambling in all its forms and prevent its legalization;
  • to combat the expansion of organized and systemic legal gambling such as the putting up of casinos; and
  • to refrain from soliciting or receiving funds from illegal and legal gambling so as not to promote a culture of gambling.
Ledesma quoted from a 2005 statement on gambling of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) that warned that “applying the general moral principle to the specific Philippine situation... gambling that is organized, widespread, and systemic, whether legal or illegal, is not desirable. It is creating a culture of gambling that is seriously eroding the moral values of our people. In its illegal form, especially jueteng, has bred a clandestine network of corruption that feeds itself on the hundreds of millions of pesos lost to gambling especially by the poor.” He added: “May [God] rekindle in us the passion to create a just and humane society, where recreations are for the integral growth of the person, and tourism will showcase the innate beauty of the city without resorting to any means that would degenerate the values and dignity of our people.” Carl Cabaraban, director of the Social Action Center of the archdiocese, said the Tuesday’s forum at the Xavier University Little Theater was just the start of the group’s campaign to prevent the planned casino operations in the city. Cabaraban announced that a much bigger public forum on March 9 is being organized. One of those who spoke during the Xavier forum was Rodulfo Llacer, a former employee of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor). He told participants that in his 20 years in the Pagcor, he witnesses many families go bankrupt or destroyed because of casinos. Llacer said casinos come with great social costs which people and government officials should seriously consider. “Kahit gaanong kalaki ang monetary or financial benefits that they promise you for being the host city, it will never compensate for the moral degradation of the people. Maraming resources ang  gobyerno, hindi na kailangan ang casino,” Llacer said.