More Casinos in PHL Draws Ire of Crusading Priest

MANILA, Philippines -- The Philippine government's plans of constructing a Las Vegas-like entertainment complex in the country is earning the ire of a vocal anti-gambling crusader.

Retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz (center).
Photo taken from www.archbishopcruz.com

Retired Catholic Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz has issued a warning to the government that it is enticing more harm than good by allowing more casinos to operate in the country. He added that building more casinos might attract drug lords and other criminals.

Speaking to ABS-CBNNews.com, Cruz said:

"Gambling entices the wrong crowd, definitely. Vice attracts vicious people, not good or sound individuals. It will attract drug lords and their drug money and even gangsters and criminals who want to launder their money legally and can't spend their money anywhere else."

The former prelate of Dagupan-Pangasinan further said that the proliferation of casinos will lead to a rise in gambling addiction which in turn, he said, will result to disastrous relationships, loss of jobs, professions, and social standing.

"Gambling, whether legal or illegal, sows a mentality of luck and laziness. Gambling addiction destroys livelihoods and families. As a priest, the hardest part of my job is to give advice to a family who is forced to sell their house and all their worldly possessions after a member of the family, usually the father, is addicted to gambling."

Government agencies including the state gaming company, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) -- the initiator of the multi-billion Entertainment City Manila  -- and the Department of Tourism (DoT) are banking on the integrated entertainment and gaming complex to bring in tourists and help build up the government's coffers with much needed cash. PAGCOR officials have earlier predicted an income of up to US$10 billion from the venture.

Cruz, a long-time crusader against gambling in all its form in the Philippines, said:

"If we are looking for more money, why not legalize drugs and prostitution? Why not legalize pedophilia? It's the same thing. The end does not justify the means. They say gambling money will help build roads and schools but what about the families whose lives were destroyed because of gambling?"

He further noted that the completion of the gaming complex on reclaimed land  along the Manila Bay will fuel the gambling urges for Filipinos in all socio-economic classes with casinos for the rich, lotto and sweepstakes for the middle class and upper lower class, and jueteng and other illegal numbers games for the poor.