18 October 2005
Archbishop rallies Catholics: Reject ‘Loterya ng Bayan’
ARCHBISHOP Oscar Cruz of the Lingayen-Dagupan archdiocese has rallied all Catholics in Pangasinan to oppose and reject the introduction of the “Loterya ng Bayan” (LNB) which he personally dubbed as a “clone to the illegal jueteng”.
In his pastoral letter read today during eucharistic celebrations in pulpits of all churches and chapels, including Catholic schools in the archdiocese, Cruz chided the Pangasinan provincial government which, he said, now intends to propagate more gambling “to officially cultivate more the culture of gambling among Pangasinenses.”
Cruz, the country’s number one anti-jueteng crusader and chair and founder of the church-based “Krusada ng Bayan Laban sa Jueteng” (Crusade for Jueteng-Free Philippines), promised “to make noise” after learning that the provincial board welcomed a letter from a Makati-based company seeking authority to experiment (LNB) in the entire province of Pangasinan.
Devout Catholics consider this an affront to Archbishop Cruz who was the leading figure in pressuring the government to finally stop jueteng which was prevalent throughout the country for many decades.
The letter of the Numbers Numbers Co. Inc., dated September 26, 2005, through Rolando Dee, provincial coordinator, was referred to three committees in the provincial board which are set to jointly conduct a series of province-wide public hearings on whether or not the body would pass a resolution authorizing the experiment.
It appears that the discussion on LNB is still on the level of the provincial board because Gov. Victor Agbayani personally believes that Pangasinan should not be made as experimental base for another numbers game even if it may have the support of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office. (See related story elsewhere in this issue.)
“This is bad news. Like the Pharisees who planned to trap Jesus, the Loterya ng Bayan just as EZ2 are both traps to the people in the province. They may be legal forms of gambling but their objective is exactly the same as jueteng,” the archbishop’s pastoral letter read.
Cruz branded as a lie the claim of the promoters of LNB that it will provide work for the poor. He stressed that gambling is in fact equated with indolence, degradation and vice and went to ask: “Since when has gambling become work?”
In his pastoral letter read today during eucharistic celebrations in pulpits of all churches and chapels, including Catholic schools in the archdiocese, Cruz chided the Pangasinan provincial government which, he said, now intends to propagate more gambling “to officially cultivate more the culture of gambling among Pangasinenses.”
Cruz, the country’s number one anti-jueteng crusader and chair and founder of the church-based “Krusada ng Bayan Laban sa Jueteng” (Crusade for Jueteng-Free Philippines), promised “to make noise” after learning that the provincial board welcomed a letter from a Makati-based company seeking authority to experiment (LNB) in the entire province of Pangasinan.
Devout Catholics consider this an affront to Archbishop Cruz who was the leading figure in pressuring the government to finally stop jueteng which was prevalent throughout the country for many decades.
The letter of the Numbers Numbers Co. Inc., dated September 26, 2005, through Rolando Dee, provincial coordinator, was referred to three committees in the provincial board which are set to jointly conduct a series of province-wide public hearings on whether or not the body would pass a resolution authorizing the experiment.
It appears that the discussion on LNB is still on the level of the provincial board because Gov. Victor Agbayani personally believes that Pangasinan should not be made as experimental base for another numbers game even if it may have the support of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office. (See related story elsewhere in this issue.)
“This is bad news. Like the Pharisees who planned to trap Jesus, the Loterya ng Bayan just as EZ2 are both traps to the people in the province. They may be legal forms of gambling but their objective is exactly the same as jueteng,” the archbishop’s pastoral letter read.
Cruz branded as a lie the claim of the promoters of LNB that it will provide work for the poor. He stressed that gambling is in fact equated with indolence, degradation and vice and went to ask: “Since when has gambling become work?”
