Fall guards & lost taxes (Latest Sabong News)
Author
Cito Beltran
Date
MARCH 23 2022
The uproar over e-salot or the curse of e-sabong and the missing 34 sabungeros has died down after President Rodrigo Duterte made it clear that his government’s priority is to continue collecting the franchise tax from licensees even after discovering that Pagcor collects only a small fraction of the total revenues, not to mention the damage it has caused to the lives of ordinary Filipinos.
What the President may not have been aware of, or chose to ignore, is the “highly disadvantageous situation to the government” that became evident when Senator Francis Tolentino pointed out that Pagcor and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) have not collected the 20 percent tax from winnings on online sabong for the last two years.
Sen. Tolentino pointed out to both agencies that they immediately collect the tax portions on sweepstakes and lotto as well as from bets on horse racing, so why not on e-sabong?
During the hearing a few days ago, the senator learned that Pagcor simply collects a fixed amount of P12,500 per fight, which is so little in comparison to what local governments collect from the 10 percent tax on all bets made in traditional sabong or cockfights. Given that many of the bets shown on screen, online, reach hundreds of thousands to millions of pesos, the government could easily be earning a hundred million plus daily for every 20 percent portion collected.
But according to my sources, e-sabong operators are the ones keeping the 20 percent on winnings inside the ring as well as outside the ring or online. While the national government gets the short end of the stick, almost all the local government units collected nothing from the cockpits in their jurisdiction because they were either locked down or prevented to operate by e-sabong friendly politicians. In contrast, almost all the e-sabong operators stayed open 24 hours/7 days for the past two years.
Following the line of thought of Senator Francis Tolentino, perhaps the Senate should consider bringing in an accounting and auditing firm to determine exactly how much the government lost in terms of uncollected taxes, how much money did each online operator collect per annum and how much revenues did Pagcor collect and where were these applied. There has to be some form of accounting and paper trail or the government has nothing to work with.
My concern here is that this entire project of Pagcor might end up becoming the next “Pharmally Anomaly” where the government once again lost billions of pesos while no one was watching or could not be scrutinized because they had the presidential stamp of approval, up until 34 people were abducted, never to be heard from again.
Aside from the presidential stamp of approval, the case of the 34 sabungeros was doused with cold water with the presentation of six suspected security guards who were singled out by a lone witness. As a result, the PNP-CIDG has filed charges against the security guards for the disappearance of at least five out of the 34 missing. That, as they say, took the thunder out of a growing movement calling for the temporary suspension of e-sabong as well as the outcry of families who lost loved ones all because of e-sabong.
The question now is how credible is the lone witness who testified against the six guards? Has the CIDG corroborated the statement with video materials allegedly gathered? What other evidence does the CIDG have that will prove beyond reasonable doubt that the security guards are the abductors and not just “fall guards” or fall guys? Is the PNP-CIDG’s lone witness the same individual that volunteered information to a GMA-7 reporter who claimed that he too was abducted and made to choose between death or going to jail on drug charges? I don’t think so. What about the case of the other 29 missing persons?
Netizens and cockfighters have raised these questions for fear that the guards could simply be a bunch of innocent bystanders who have been charged, only to be released months from now for lack of evidence or insufficient grounds when all the heat on e-sabong has died down or in the term of the next president. I would like to believe that the CIDG has done their work with integrity and do have the right persons in detention but because there are a total number of 34 missing and feared to have been liquidated, many believe that witnesses would not be so willing to step out for fear that they too could be targeted. Some say that the voluntary appearance of one or two witnesses right when public pressure got hot was highly suspicious.
Perhaps that should be the focus of legislators and the police, to find the rest of the people involved or behind the disappearance of sabungeros. That was the issue in the first place and that is what remains to be solved and not just the suspension of operation for e-sabong. In this regard, the CIDG and DOJ should carry on with their assignment from the President to solve these cases and that is also what the families of the missing have been asking and praying for: to have closure on the matter. With no suspects for the disappearance of the 29 others missing, the case is certainly far from solved or closed.
Just in case some people are inclined to drag their feet on the matter, allow me to share with you what I read from the book of Jeremiah 5:28-29 yesterday:
“They surpass the deeds of the wicked; they do not plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless; yet they prosper, and the right of the needy they do not defend. Shall I not punish them for these things? says the Lord. Shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?”
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