Senators urge Marcos to address online gambling

Senators Risa Hontiveros, Kiko Pangilinan, Loren Legarda, Joel Villanueva, Alan Peter Cayetano, and Juan Miguel Zubiri are urging President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to address the issue of online gambling more seriously following his fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA), where he did not mention steps to regulate or ban it.

Hontiveros expressed disappointment that Marcos did not discuss measures to combat online gambling in his SONA, describing it as a missed opportunity.

Villanueva and Legarda emphasized the need for a total ban on online gambling due to its destructive impact on Filipino lives, while Pangilinan urged Congress to investigate the normalization of online gambling through aggressive media promotion.

Cayetano welcomed Marcos's tone in his SONA but echoed the need for strict regulation or ban on online gambling advertisements and compliance with regulations by media platforms.

Legarda suggested that efforts to address flood control must go hand in hand with strict implementation of laws like the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, emphasizing the importance of confronting corruption and wasteful spending in infrastructure projects.