Mayor Bautista signs resolution rejecting proposals
Mike Guimbatan Jr.
BAGUIO CITY — An attempt to operate a small-time lottery in this city is now officially dead.
Baguio Mayor Reinaldo Bautista Jr. signed into law City Council Resolution No. 281 rejecting proposals to operate an STL here whether on temporary or permanent basis.
The mayor’s signature in the resolution implies that the city council will no longer entertain similar requests for STL operation for the duration of the term of the incumbent officials.
The resolution also enjoins members of law-enforcement agencies, barangay officials and residents to help in the efforts to stop all forms of illegal gambling in the city.
STL was earlier seen as a scheme to rival “jueteng,” an illegal numbers game.
Several companies had offered to operate the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office-sponsored STL in this city, but the city residents had consistently opposed their applications.
The council resolution was passed after its committee on laws, chaired by Councilor Richard Carino, conducted a public hearing last June 17. The STL franchise applicants failed to appear at the scheduled hearing.
Various sectors led by the influential Baguio City Multisectoral Group (BCMG) unanimously opposed the STL application.
It was recalled that STL was revived in 2006 and was pushed by the administration as a legal lottery game in the tradition of sweepstakes and on-line bingo and lotto. It was intended to stop jueteng operations in the countryside.
The city has adopted an anti-gambling stand which was embodied in Resolution No. 122-02 entitled “Expressing the Sentiment of the People of Baguio and the Policy of the City Government against Gambling.”
The measure was passed by the city council on June 26, 2002, and it remains in effect.
Several anti-gambling measures were adopted by the city. One measure stopped the reopening of the casino in 1991. There were also anti-lotto measures passed in 1994, 1995, and 2004.
City Resolution No. 221, series of 1989, and Resolution No. 122, series of 2002, also registered the city’s opposition to the entry of all forms of gambling in the city.
However, jueteng and small-time casinos still thrive in the city although these are conducting guerrilla-style operations.
