Gambling via mobile phones takes on serious note in the Philippines

Frequently, mobile phones are now in the news when there are peeping toms that use the camera in inappropriate places, to express it mildly.

But every now and then, the Philippines pops up with a different issue - recently it was the idea of some governmental officer to impose taxes on SMS. Now, the Department of Justice seeks to ban mobile phones from school premises since apparently, students use mobile phones for gambling purposes - students, for example, bet on final scores in sports competitons, especially basketball. One student committed suicide after losing.

Okay, this is a serious issue, but isn't this more an issue of education and repositioning the problem? As the responsible secretary Merceditas Gutierrez admitted that this is a problem of the parents once students leave the school premises. So blame the technology, and not the real issues, such as education, lack of awareness creation etc?