The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and representatives from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) simultaneously raided Wednesday night five sites of the illegal “peryahan ng bayan” being operated by Globaltech using PCSO as its front, according to PCSO General Manager Alexander Balutan on Friday.
“Let this be a warning to Globaltech, you are operating illegally. We will shut down all your existing peryahan sites. We will also file criminal charges against the operators and also administrative if we found out that some elective officials are involved in this kind of illegal gambling activity,” Balutan said.
He said the raid was led by Manuel Fraginal Sr., chief of the PCSO Nationwide Inter-Branch Security Monitoring (PCSO-NIBSM).
This resulted to the arrest of 57 individuals acting as bet collectors while remitting their bet collections in the different collection outlets of Globaltech.
Confiscated from the suspects were 4 sets of desk top computers; fake PCSO identification cards; bet slips and several pieces of documents; and vehicles used for bet collection.
Fraginal said those arrested will be facing charges for the violation of the Anti-Illegal Numbers Games Laws and the Cyber Crime Law.
“The peryahan which is being operated by Globaltech in Quezon City and some parts of the country is illegal and must be closed,” Balutan said.
He said PCSO terminated in 2016 Globaltech’s Deed of Authority to operate peryahan for various violations. The firm also owes PCSO an estimated P100-million unremitted revenues.
Globaltech filed a complaint for the issuance of a writ of preliminary injunction that junked by the Pasig City Regional Trial Court (RTC) in October 2017.
