It took many months of probing into the operation of the Philippine Overseas Gaming Operations (POGOs) before the legislature outlawed it and there was a concerted effort to throw out this malaise from our society, which brought heinous crimes into our country.
And now, a similar malaise – electronic sabong (cockfighting), which had been banned by former President Duterte for the social ills it caused to the impoverished farmers/fishermen and the innocent students, who found it easy to gamble using their cellphones – is now being resurrected by the greedy Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) so it can raise fund, presumably to fatten their own pockets.
So far, legislators from both chambers of Congress are opposing such a proposal which would again wreak havoc on our country.
Thankfully, even the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) is opposing it as there are ways, other than gambling, especially the very convenient e-sabong, for raising funds for our social and economic development.
At least we are assured that there are still sane and good-thinking members in our government, compared to the money-hungry PAGCOR.
The DBM put its foot down when it said the government has enough revenues to fund next year’s national budget.
“It’s not in the assumptions for the 2025 budget,” DBM Secretary Amenah Pangandaman told reporters on the sidelines of a briefing on Wednesday (August 21), referring to potential taxes from e-sabong, reported Business World.
E-sabong was banned in May 2022, but some were still involved in it as by August 2023, the Inquirer reported government’s warning that persons involved in e-sabong are currently charged with violation of Presidential Decree No. 1602, the country's anti-illegal gambling law, (signed in 1978), and PD 449 (Cockfighting Law of 1974).
DBM’s statements come after PAGCOR earlier proposed to revive e-sabong operations to help generate additional state revenue.
At a recent House of Representatives hearing, PAGCOR Chairman Alejandro Tengco said the agency could better regulate e-sabong operations.
How so when it failed in regulating the growth of illegal POGOs in years past so how could it regulate e-sabong now?
“I brought up this concern with Congress and the Senate. Definitely, there are foregone revenues. But then again, there are also social consequences,” said Pagdanganan.
Pangandaman asserted that even without e-sabong, PAGCOR continues to generate earnings.
PAGCOR reported a 32.32 percent surge in gross gaming revenue to P89.23 billion in the second quarter, mostly from electronic gambling.
The state-owned corporation collected over P6 billion in revenue from online cockfighting in 2021 until Duterte banned it in May 2022 after the disappearance of 34 cockfighting players who got addicted to e-sabong.
To date, these missing sabungeros have yet to be found.
Before the ban, the Bureau of Internal Revenue and PAGCOR did not withhold the 20 percent tax on e-sabong winnings since it started in 2020.
Numerous legislators opposed the revival of e-sabong saying this is worse than POGO, which President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. banned recently given their links to criminal syndicates.
A bill that seeks to prohibit all forms of online gambling is pending at a Senate committee.
Pangandaman said the proposed e-sabong revival would be discussed in the economic team’s meeting this month.
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