Duterte: P7B per year lost in PCSO corruption under Aquino

Due to corruption in the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office during the term of President Benigni Aquino III's term, the Philippines was losing P 7 billion a year, according to President Rodrigo Duterte.

Photo by Philstar

“As a matter of fact, itong Philippine Charity Sweepstakes, binaboy ‘yan ng mga sindikato pati ‘yung mga, ‘yung mga gangster dito na big time sa Pilipinas (was used by the syndicates and big-time gangsters in the Philippines),” Duterte told troops at teh Camp Tecson in San Miguel, Bulacan on Friday.

The President said he tapped retired Maj. Gen. Alexander Balutan, who was  reported to head the Bureau of Corrections as general mjanager of PCSO to "kill" corrupt officials running the agency.


"So we were losing about 20 million a day,” he said.

He said the officials who ran the PCSO were linked to the illegal number racket.

'Yung lotto, sinakyan nila ng jueteng, pero sila rin ang humawak (They controlled both the lotto and jueteng) and they were granted that right by previous government. We were losing billions of pesos a year in taxes,” he said.

PCSO was once headed by chairperson Margarita Juico and was replaced by Erineo Maliksi in 2015, during Aquino's term.

The Office of the Ombudsman filed graft charges against former and incumbent PCSO officials including Juico and Maliksi over the extension of contracts for the lease of lottery terminals without public bidding.

Duterte said he was looking for someone who has the guts to get rid of crooks plaguing one of the juiciest agencies of the government. MJM

Source: Inquirer

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