By Robert B. Roque, Jr.
It took a foreigner-turned-Filipino to jolt us into facing an ugly truth that we had long tolerated. BecomingFilipino’s Kyle Jennermann, now a naturalized citizen, bared his heartbreak watching a jeepney driver — likely in his late 50s — quietly burn his day’s earnings, ₱50 at a time, spinning online bingo between stops. His compassion is admirable; but it also exposes our national shame: how callous we’ve become to the silent ruin gambling wreaks on ordinary lives.
Why are gambling ads everywhere? Why does the government allow their pervasive presence across social media? Where are the safeguards for the financially weak and easily preyed upon? The least among us — like that driver — are served apps that make gambling seamless, instant, and devastating. Companies like GCash, whose platform facilitates these transactions, should be at the forefront of protecting the vulnerable.
If Meta can block political disinformation, surely Facebook can empower users to flag gambling ads as spam or, better yet, restrict their spread entirely. But it won’t — because money flows where vice thrives.
Beyond the licensed apps lies a much darker web — the proliferation of illegal online gambling sites. How have thousands of these sites multiplied like cats? Malacañang admits to shutting down over 7,000 such websites, only for them to resurface under new domains. The government’s campaign must be relentless. Law enforcement, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) — all must close ranks and, if existing laws lack teeth, Congress must step in.
Ironically, while the government pledges nationwide internet access by 2028, as DICT Secretary Henry Aguda declared last week, we risk connecting our poorest even faster to these predatory platforms.
If connectivity only means opening the floodgates of scams and online gambling to the most vulnerable, then we are laying the nation’s poor bare to digital bankruptcy. Connectivity must come hand in hand with strong safeguards, moral recovery programs in schools, churches, and communities, and a nationwide crackdown on illegal gambling in all its forms.
Let it be a chilling reminder that when gambling’s face turns, it’s as cold as murder. Just see the ruthless fate of 34 sabungeros who had gone missing the past years since the pandemic. A new witness has attested that their remains are melting beneath Taal Lake.
Perhaps in the time of PNP Chief Nicolas Torre III, the gruesome truth that gambling is one of the cruelest forms of organized crime may be exposed. It is Firing Line’s hope that Torre pursues full justice against the rogue police involved, but more importantly, leads an uncompromising campaign against gambling’s deeply corruptive grasp — whether online, underground, or out in the open.
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SHORT BURSTS. For comments or reactions, email firingline@ymail.com or tweet @Side_View via X. Read current and past issues of this column at http://www.thephilbiznews.com
