By Jel Santos
A total of 40 people were recently apprehended for illegal gambling in the cities of Mandaue and Cebu, an official of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) said Tuesday.
Alexander Balutan, PCSO general manager, said the 40 people were arrested on November 20 and 22.
PSCO GM Alexander Balutan
(Joseph Vidal / MANILA BULLETIN)
“We will not stop until we shut down all Peryahan ng Bayan outlets,” he said.
The raids were headed by Manuel Fraginal Sr., chief of the PCSO-Nationwide Inter-Branch Security Monitoring (PCSO-NIBSM), in coordination with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
As per Fraginal, the crackdown led to the closure of GlobalTech’s “Peryahan ng Bayan” collection outlets and the arrest of 18 Globaltech employees in Mandaue City and 22 in Cebu City.
“The arrested personnel are now facing cases for violations of Republic Act 9287 (for direct involvement in the illegal numbers game) and Republic Act 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act," he said.
Seized from the outlets were gambling paraphernalia, fake PCSO identification cards, cellular phones, and other pieces of evidence to be used in court.