Senator Nancy Binay told the Philippine National Police (PNP) not to waste their time working on the closure of thousands of lotto outlets nationwide to follow President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to stop Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office’s (PCSO) gaming activities.
In a press release, Binay told the PNP to avoid wasting their energy and resources traveling around to close down lotto outlets instead of doing their job to investigate cases and help civilians.
“Instead of wasting their time in closing down lotto outlets, bakit di nila pagdiskitahan habulin at hulihin ang mga nasa wanted list nila, o yung mga insidente sa Negros? Mobilizing the police force to quell gambling activities over investigating the demise of unarmed civilians only shows the PNP’s misplaced sense of priority,” the senator said.
Binay explained that there’s no point for the PNP to close down the lotto outlets because PCSO already closed its gaming servers since last week.
“Sa totoo lang, offline na lahat ng lotto outlets at na-shutdown na ang main servers noong Biyernes pa lang. Kaya, there’s no point for police operatives to padlock non-operational betting stations that are already out of business. Medyo overkill at OA na yun,” Binay stated.
“Please veer away from the theatrics. Let the full force of the law crush down on hardened lawbreakers. Ano ba ang kailangan mas i-prioritize ng PNP–ang pag-padlock ng lotto outlets, o pagsugpo ng krimen? Place the highest priority on going after lawbreakers,” added Binay.
After President’s order, PNP and AFP participated in the closure of lotto outlets nationwide, saying that they already closed 5,000 outlets.
Duterte ordered the closure of all gaming activities under PCSO because of alleged corruption, pointing out that 60% of the funds of the agency went to the wrong pockets.