Philippines | Duterte halts lotteries amid alleged corruption

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the indefinite closure of popular lotteries run by the government’s sweepstakes agency due to alleged massive corruption and said even courts couldn’t stop his order.

Duterte issued the order late Friday telling the national police and the military to immediately close all lottery and gambling outlets of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, or PCSO. Duterte did not elaborate on the alleged corruption and said an investigation would follow.

“The ground is massive corruption,” Duterte said in a video message, adding without elaborating that repeated court injunctions on the issue had helped paralyze government and allowed corruption to thrive.

“I will not honor any order from any court stopping us or enjoining us to stop our desire to go into a massive investigation for the massive corruption that is existing in the PCSO,” said Duterte, who has been criticized in the past for actions and threatening remarks that critics feared could undermine judicial independence.

“It’s all cheating and the contracts were like crafted in favor of corruption and to favor other corporations and people. I will not allow it,” Duterte said without providing other details.

PCSO General Manager Royina Garma said in a statement that the agency would comply with the presidential order but would appeal to Duterte to resume the lotteries. The lotteries, including the widely popular “lotto” games, generate huge revenues that have been mostly used for public health programs and charity.

One type of game, the small town lottery, was launched in the mid-2000s to stamp out a hugely popular illegal numbers game called “jueteng.” In just a year of operation, the lottery generated 3 billion pesos (USD58 million) in revenues and 62,500 jobs for poor workers displaced by a crackdown on “jueteng,” PCSO officials said. AP