CAGAYAN de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez has opposed the reported plan to privatize or sell to the private sector the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor).

“Pagcor is earning tens of billions of pesos a year for the government and for its numerous public service programs. I am strongly against privatizing it,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said despite the pandemic, Pagcor earned P26.7 billion in the first half of this year, P32.6 billion last year, and P30 billion in 2020 when the health crisis erupted.

“So why kill, or more appropriately, why sell the goose that lays the golden eggs?” Rodriguez asked.

He said private investors are profit-motivated and would care less about public service activities like helping the sick and building schools than a public agency like Pagcor.

At the same time, Rodriguez reiterated its opposition to the resumption of “E-sabong” or online cockfighting, which former President Rodrigo Duterte had ordered Pagcor to stop.

He suggested that agency officials talk to former Pampanga Congressman Joseller “Yeng” Guiao and former Mayor Jerry Pelayo of Candaba town in Pampanga, who have written letters to newspapers pleading for the government to put an end to e-sabong.

In their letters, Guiao and Pelayo said their province mates patronize online sabong because it offers them hope to get out of poverty, just like jueteng and other illegal numbers games.

However, they said that e-sabong is “a lot worse” because it drives people to debt and death.

In one letter, Pelayo said he had a nephew who became so addicted to online cockfighting that he incurred a huge debt, sold his properties, and took his own life when he could no longer pay.

Pelayo and Guiao said farmers and poor people sell whatever they have due to their newfound addiction to e-sabong.

Aside from Guiao’s and Pelayo’s complaints, Rodriguez called attention to the reported abductions months ago of more than 20 cockfighting patrons, whose whereabouts the Philippine National Police (PNP) has not been able to trace up to this time.

“Pagcor should see the evils its online cockfighting project has brought about. It doesn’t need e-sabong. It generates enough revenues for its programs,” the Cagayan de Oro lawmaker said.