STL hurts local economy

Cheers to Bishop Vicente M. Navarra, Acting Gov. Isidro Zayco, Rep. Monico Puentevella, and many others who are opposing the entry of Small Town Lottery here. Bishop Navarra had urged voters not to vote for candidates who are supporting the STL. The Bishop opposed STL on moral issues. And this fight will go up to the 2010 election.

The Acting Governor is opposing it also on economic grounds, in addition to its moral issue. I join them on both moral and economic issues.

But, before I discuss the issues, why are the promoters, sponsors, and operators of STL not answering the questions posed. They are: who are the operators of STL and the people behind them? They are all private persons and STL is a private business.

They just keep on talking about the aid to the barangay or city but they never tell us, how many numbers are involved, how many combinations, how much does a winner get for his bet of one peso, how much goes to the bet solicitors, how much to the barangay, municipality, city, or province, how much for their operational expense.

From that, you can figure out, the rest goes to the operators in Manila, Acting Gov. Zayco said of the money earned, only five percent is retained by the franchise holder and the rest is remitted to Manila.

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I will show you how STL can impoverish, draining the community of its money, including the last peso that a poor man bets in the hope that he wins but he does not.

There are 38 numbers I was told. And one has to get the right combination of three numbers to win P400 from a bet of a peso. So, you multiply 38 by 37 by 36 and you get 50,616 combinations.

Granting that all numbers are betted on, this means your chance of winning is one over 50,615. And granting that the operator takes out P16,000 or one-third for expenses for a draw, a winner should get as his winning P34,000. But he gets only P400. He is openly cheated. The operator pockets P33,600.

And many do not know this because how many of our people know the mathematics of probability. And with this the operator can afford to bribe public officials, police, judges, prosecutors, and even the media.

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Politicians support it. There is money. Police officials promote it, too. But the community suffers economically. And also the lack of transparency in the draw. What is the guarantee that the operators will not make the unbetted combination win? Then he gets all the bets.

It is for this reason that Acting Gov. Zayco is standing strong on the issue. And so with Bishop Vicente Navarra. And with Congressman Monico Puentevella. They stand on high moral ground. I heard Mayor Bing Leonardia when confronted on Monico's standing against STL, said, what is the difference between STL and bingo. What he meant was Monico has been for bingo but against STL.

I have not talked to Monico but I would like to believe that our Congressman has his change of heart, like Saul on his way to Damascus was convinced by the Lord to change. Now, he is against gambling. He might give up the bingo thing. Or he will be inconsistent.

Let us all stand up against Small Town Lottery for our people's sake.

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Congratulations to all the awardees tomorrow headed by the five Banwahanon Awardees announced by the office of Mayor Leonardia yesterday.

They are all very deserving. There was no question from the media during the press conference except one question asked me, why Bobby Montelibano who opposed the retention of the airport and had not agreed with the stand of the CENECO past presidents.

Well, judges are to be mature and decide based on the merits which basis was the impact of the life of a nominee. One question was that Bobby was a candidate against Bing in 1995. But Banwahanon Award is above partisan politics. And Mayor Bing does not interfere believing the judges know. I have been a judge many times and chairman in 2004 and 2006.

Bobby even said, we should have given the award to others. He already has enough of the honors. But, I told him, Bob the judges believe you deserve it.

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Another question was why BREDCO's Sammy Palanca was not nominated. I said, I gave a form to be filled out to Lawyer Jack Maalat to be signed by Atty. Palanca but Palanca begged off, saying to give it to other deserving people.

I can see Palanca's self effacing, low profile nature.

Congratulations to all the awardees. Their life stands as example for others to follow. And that's what we need here, emphasize the positive.

By the way, Banwahanon Award is given only to private persons, not to those connected with government.*

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