Church leaders urge Baguio to ban gambling ads
BAGUIO CITY—Church leaders have petitioned the local government to prohibit advertisements promoting all forms of gambling in the city, reasserting a public-backed antigambling stance that dates back to the destructive 1990 Luzon earthquake.
According to the Baguio City Ecumenical Council, it has “consistently upheld its principled stand opposing all forms of gambling, recognizing its harmful effects on individuals, families and communities.”
“Gambling—whether in physical establishments, such as casinos and bingo halls, or through online platforms, mobile applications and other digital means—poses serious risks, including addiction, financial ruin, family breakdown, youth vulnerability and increased social instability,” stated the petition penned by Episcopal Rev. Genesis Mark Langbao, who heads the ecumenical group composed of Catholic, Protestant, Islamic and other denominational Churches serving Baguio.
The petition said local Churches were “especially alarmed by the aggressive proliferation of gambling advertisements in public and digital spaces.”
“These promotions glamorize instant wealth, target vulnerable sectors including the youth and economically struggling families and erode the culture of honest labor and perseverance that our city upholds. Allowing such advertisements contradicts our commitment to character formation and responsible citizenship,” the petition stated.
The document was dated Feb. 19 but was transmitted to the Inquirer on March 12.
The city council has been tackling its current policies on gaming and lotteries.
Draft ordinance
Earlier, on March 2, city councilors discussed a draft ordinance that would ban all forms of street advertisements promoting gambling.
The six sponsors of the measure, including Sangguniang Kabataan (youth council) President and Councilor John Rhey Mananeng, flagged the participation of electronic gaming firms in this year’s Baguio Flower Festival.
A prominent online bingo company joined the 30th Grand Float Parade on March 1 and operated a booth during the subsequent festival street bazaar, “Session Road in Bloom,” which ended on March 8.
On Feb. 3, the city council also called for a review of all state-approved gaming operations in the summer capital, heeding a Jan. 26 position expressed by the Baguio Character City Council, which advocates morality in governance.
Raising funds
The character city council had also “discouraged” village governments from using gambling to raise funds for their operations.
The legality of barangay bingo “does not automatically confer ethical acceptability, particularly in a city that has consciously chosen to anchor governance and development on character and values,” argued Rev. Rodolfo de Guia, vice chair of the character city council, who penned its position paper.
Baguio residents developed a hard-line antigambling sentiment shortly after surviving the destruction caused by the July 16, 1990, Luzon earthquake, which killed more than a thousand people in the city.
One of the most striking images of that calamity was the collapse of the Hyatt Hotel in Baguio, which operated a casino. In 1991, the city council formally blocked all casinos in the city and demanded that none be established at Camp John Hay in 1994.
The sentiment later extended to other forms of gambling, such as the state-run Small Town Lottery in the mid-2000s, as well as bingo games organized by barangays.
In the ecumenical council’s petition, Church leaders said “true progress is measured not merely by revenue generation but by the moral and social health of our people.”
The Churches urged Baguio officials “to enact or strengthen ordinances prohibiting all forms of gambling operations within the territorial jurisdiction of Baguio City, including electronic, online and app-based gambling platforms to the extent allowed by law.”
The petition also cited Ordinance No. 481 of 1968, which imposed stiffer penalties for gambling during that period.
Church leaders likewise asked the city government “to conduct a comprehensive review of existing gambling-related permits and establishments, with the end in view of phasing out such operations.”
