Pagcor should consult Congress on ‘e-sabong’ (Sabong News)

Senator Francis “Tol” Tolentino on Friday, March 4 questioned the decision of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) to seek legal guidance from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and leave out the Congress on the issue of “e-sabong” operations in the country. Tolentino, chairman of the Senate Committee on Local Government, issued this statement in today’s hybrid hearing of the Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs which is investigating the rising number of disappearances of “sabong” and “e-sabong” patrons. He wondered why PAGCOR chairperson Andrea Domingo, who was a former lawmaker, never solicited advice from either Congress or Senate on licensing e-sabong and allowing their operations. “You saw an opening to license e-sabong. You asked the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG). You asked the Department of Justice (DOJ). Eventually you asked the Office of the Executive Secretary. Being a former lawmaker yourself, why didn’t you ask the Congress or Senate to amend the Republic Act 9487 (Pagcor Charter) that would include e-sabong?” Tolentino told Domingo. In response, Domingo explained the initiative to regulate e-sabong did not come from PAGCOR but from President Duterte who expressed grave concern that the e-sabong went unabated and unregulated with no benefit from the government. “When the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued its legal opinion, the Executive Secretary issued a memorandum recognizing our authority to regulate e-sabong and we proceeded in the crafting of operations manual before we started accepting applications,” Domingo said. Atong Ang, owner of three ‘’e-sabong’’ licenses issued by Pager, told senators that his Lucky 8 company grosses P1 billion to P2 billion a day while the gross take of five other licensees is about P500 million a day. When asked by Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon what is his company’s monthly gross receipts, Ang replied: P60 billion. Later, Tolentino said the DOJ and PAGCOR usurped the authority of Congress over online ‘’e-sabong.’’ Tolentino said the current online ‘’e-sabong’’ fiasco should be blamed on the DOJ’s ‘erroneous interpretation of the law’ following a separate legal opinion issued by the agency on January 28, 2021, and became the basis of Pagcor for issuing licenses to e-sabong operators. He stressed that not a single provision stated under Presidential Decree 1869 and as amended by Republic Act No. 9487 which empowered Pagcor to unilaterally takeover the licensing authority over online cockfighting. “The law is what is written. Kung hindi ‘yun nakasulat doon, hindi ‘yun batas (If it is not written, it is not a law). Ang pwede lang po gumawa ng batas, Kongreso… hindi po DOJ (It is only Congress that can pass laws, not the DOJ),’’ he said. Tolentino further got irked when Chief State Counsel Undersecretary George Ortha insisted that the DOJ ‘being the Attorney General’ could have its own interpretation of the law, just like what they did after issuing a separate legal opinion and is now being used by Pagcor in granting online sabong permits. He explained that the legal opinion issued by DOJ which became the ground of Pagcor in issuing e-sabong licenses “is a direct usurpation of legislative powers” under Article 239 of the Revised Penal Code, noting that Congress has the sole authority over franchises. “Don’t skew your interpretation that (will) make us believe that (what) you are saying is canonical now,” he added. Aside from DOJ, the Office of the Solicitor General also issued a separate opinion in May 2018 that helped empowered PAGCOR and enable them solely to control the issuance of permits in the “e-sabong” industry. The senator reiterated his last week’s statement, in which he explained that ‘’e-sabong’’ is not included in the jurisdiction of PAGCOR under PD 1869 and RA 9487.