DAET, Camarines Norte---The members of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of this province were fiercely divided Tuesday during the deliberation of the operation of Small Town Lottery (STL) in the province which made one local solon walkout of the session hall in the middle of heated argument.
Voting 8-5 in favor of the STL operation in Camarines Norte, the crowd in the jam packed session hall with jueteng bet collectors in attendance applauded the approval of the provincial board of its operation which is planned to officially begin next month.
The approval of the STL operation came two weeks after the operation of the illegal numbers game jueteng stopped purportedly after the person(s) running the operation went bankrupt. For three years, jueteng in Camarines Norte proliferated with no action from Senior Supt. Noel Constantino, police provincial director, and Gov. Jesus Typoco Jr.
Introduced in a Committee En Banc session of the provincial board a week earlier by board member Jonah Pimentel who was supported by board members Bong Avila, Michael Canlas, Jeofrey Pandi, Mark Julius Litana and Dr. Ruth Herrera, the divisive subject of STL operation resurrected amidst strong opposition from the other members of the provincial board.
Opposing the move to approve the operation of the STL, the board members who were against its operation argued that it must pass the process of public consultation before deliberation but Pimentel retorted that the public consultation was not necessary since the subject of its operation had been passed and approved by the provincial board on April 3, 2006 under Resolution No. 102-2006.
Board members Romeo Marmol and Ligaya Lo-Pedron slammed their pro-STL colleagues in local radio station Bay Radio-FM by putting into question the decision to forgo with the public consultation alleging that there was bribe attempt on them. They alleged that aside from the initial payment offered to them they were supposedly promised a monthly intelihensya (percentage of the jueteng bet collection).
“Totoong may suhulan pero hindi under the table kundi over the table,” Pimentel retorted when Bicol Mail asked about his reaction.
On Tuesday, the session hall of the provincial board was almost full with kibitzers who were interested to know the result of the deliberation on the STL operation which lasted for three hours and ended at 1:35 in the afternoon.
The provincial board deliberated on the draft resolution with a title “A Resolution Re Adopting Sangguniang Panlalawigan Resolution 102-2006 dated April 3, 2006” and another resolution entitled “A Resolution Requesting the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office To Establish A Small Town Lottery in the Province of Camarines Norte”.
Board member Pamela Pardo-Pujalte delivered a privilege speech that rejected the use of the word “re-adoption” in the formulation of the resolution because she said those who approved the first resolution were different from the present members of the provincial board, so that, the “adoption of STL” was instead approved.
During the heated deliberation Pujalte was accused of pointing her finger on her colleagues that irked Pedron who walked out of the session hall but later went back. Pujalte denied she pointed her finger on her colleagues.
Finally the majority of the provincial board members voted for the approval of the STL operation in Camarines Norte with Avila, Pimentel, Litana, Canlas, Pandi, Herrera, Ronnie Magana and Elpidio Tenorio voting in favor and those who dissented included Marmol, Buding Segundo, Pedron, Tess Malubay and Pujalte.
OPPOSING VIEWS. Provincial Board Member Tess Malubay (left) strongly bats for the conduct of wider public consultation before the Sangguniang Panlalawigan tackles in a session the matter of allowing or not STL operations in Camarines Norte. Her colleagues, Board Members Jonah Pimentel and Ruth Hervera (2nd and 3rd from left), however, think otherwise saying that an application for operation had been passed and approved by the provincial board as early as April 2006.
