By and large, we have accepted the government’s claim that legalized gambling, for all its moral ambiguity, will provide us with much-needed revenue.

Dr. Solita Collan-Monsod has shown that the government has been less than candid with us (Mr. & Ms., Feb. 1-7). The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) turns out to be a huge rip-off benefiting a few unnamed persons. Per the decrees that created it, Pagcor is virtually above the law. And the veil of secrecy that surrounds Pagcor’s officers and operations makes it impossible to mobilize the forces of public opinion against it.

But what we do not know is that Pagcor’s chairman of the board is none other than Mr. Ruben Ancheta, Director of Internal Revenue, who all these years has been projecting the image of a decent career person trying to raise revenues despite pressures to favor this or that corporation or individual.

I am shocked by the unmasking of Mr. Ancheta as the chief corporate officer of a money-making machine that returns minimal revenues to the government. It is the kind of scandal that would result if the leader of a nation-wide child prostitution ring turned out to be the Minister of Social Services.

Mr. Acheta’s shameful conflict of interest in this case is the type of thing that is fast turning us into a nation of tax-evaders.

CARLOTA SALVADOR