House minority floor leader Danilo Suarez — who represents the 3rd District of Quezon — has proposed the hiring of reformed drug addicts as small town lottery (STL) bet collectors.
The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) runs the STL, one of the government’s approved gambling activities.
ABS-CBN News quoted Suarez as saying, “The sad reality is that, after leaving rehab, finding gainful employment will be impossible because lack of required education and relevant experience and their historical association to illegal drugs.”
Some 700,000 drug suspects have surrendered as of October 2016, as President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs entered its fourth month, ABSCBN News Research indicated.
Suarez explained, “Thinking out of the box, we think it’s a good idea to use the street experience of these rehabilitated ‘surrenderers’ to work with small town lottery bet collectors. The option of joining STL collectors gives these surrenderers a legal means of earning a living.”
When he was asked about the danger of former drug users becoming addicted to gambling, Suarez replied, “This a question of social orientation, getting help from the DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development), and to discourage them from mixing with their old peers.”
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