Baguio council studies proposed bingo ban at market complex

AT THE CROSSROADS The Maharlika Livelihood Complex, whose ownership was taken over by the Baguio city government last May, is a local landmark at the crossroads in downtown Baguio City, shown in this photo taken on June 20. It hosts a myriad of shops, including a bingo outlet that some council members now want closed in line with the city’s no gambling policy. —NEIL CLARK ONGCHANGCO

BAGUIO CITY—The Baguio City Council is studying a proposal to remove e-bingo operations from the city’s first shopping center, in line with its stance against gambling.

The city government inherited the gaming facility when it took control of the Maharlika Livelihood Complex from the Department of Agriculture last May—a month after its 50-year lease contract had officially lapsed.

Maharlika is arguably the only surviving project of the now-defunct Ministry of Human Settlements, which put up the building during the term of deposed President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

Maharlika hosted small and medium enterprises, as well as shops put up by businessmen who were displaced by a 1970 fire that consumed the original stone market. Technically, all business contracts at Maharlika were dissolved when the Baguio government took over Maharlika on May 29.

Electronic bingo, however, continues to run at Maharlika’s basement, Councilor Betty Lourdes Tabanda said.

She sponsored the resolution seeking the “immediate removal” of the e-bingo and traditional bingo outlet on Aug. 18. A similar measure was filed by Councilor John Rhey Mananeng, president of the Sangguniang Kabataan in the city.

Public sentiment

In 1990, residents of the summer capital advocated the prohibition on “all forms of gambling,” particularly casinos, following the devastation wrought by the July 16, 1990, earthquake that toppled a popular hotel and casino.

A gambling prohibition was also one of Baguio’s stipulations when the council issued 19 conditions in endorsing the Camp John Hay Master Development Plan in 1984 that commercialized 280 hectares of the former American recreational base land, which used to be operated by the Camp John Hay Development Corp. that, after decades of legal battle with the government, lost to the Bases Conversion and Development Authority that now runs the erstwhile disputed property.

The public’s antigambling sentiment fueled opposition to government-led games like the small town lottery, as well as illegal numbers games like jueteng. But the Baguio government in 2015 cleared the way for e-bingo, due to national laws enforcing local governments to provide access to the game.

In 2021, Tabanda initiated the repeal of two resolutions that had expressed “no objections” to e-bingo outlets to be put up at hotels. In 2023, the Baguio City Council officially declared Baguio as a Character City and adopted a character-oriented social program through Ordinance No. 039.

Tabanda’s proposed measure cited Ordinance No. 039 to assert Baguio’s intent to “eradicate all vices” like gambling, which “are contrary to its established goals.”

“The Maharlika Livelihood Complex … must strictly adhere to the laws and policies prohibiting gambling and other vices within its premises,” the draft resolution states.