PCSO

Group asks court to cite in ‘contempt’ a PCSO dept

June 9, 2022 Hector Lawas 472 views

THE Anti-Trapo Movement (ATM) has asked the Mandaluyong Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 212 to hold in contempt a department in the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) for allegedly giving out inaccurate information in an ongoing case.

“We have taken an active interest in this case because PCSO is currently in a precarious financial situation with revenue collection hitting rock bottom during the COVID-19 pandemic and would likely continue unless the call of president-elect Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. for digitization is implemented”, ATM Chairman Leon Peralta said.

It was earlier reported that Branch 212 Judge Rizalina Capco-Umali, during a May 19 hearing on a mandamus petition, stated that “she was about to go on leave for several weeks and told them to either wait for her return or transfer the plea to the RTC’s executive judge for resolution.”

But upon fact-checking, Peralta said Judge Capco-Umali did not utter those statements.

It was gathered that during the hearing, PCSO was left with no counsel of record because the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) opted not to represent the agency.

Last July 26, 2019, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte ordered all gaming activities of PCSO, including the lotto, stopped due to alleged “massive corruption” in the agency.

In addressing the dwindling revenues and massive corruption, the current PCSO Board sought to implement a “digitization” with an eye on turning around its revenue-generation capability, notably on the lotto operations.

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