‘Jueteng president’ to lead a split nation in 2016?

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO
March Fianza

I used to place jueteng bets and if memory is still okay the number combination 2016 is a good combination which means “agtatakaw nga baket” (old woman thief). I think I know of a very high public official who fits that description. She now represents the “Vatican of jueteng” in congress.

But of course, before the 2016 presidential election, we still have the midterm elections in 2013. The number combination in jueteng lingo means “agtatakaw nga opisyal” (public official thief).

One can count with his fingers the number of proponents who want jueteng to be legalized as compared to those who want it definitely stopped. A good number of senators and private individuals who listened to the latest jueteng probe considered the proposal to legalize it as a last remedy to the problem.

In the meantime, Malacanang dwellers, senators and congressmen, judges and prosecutors, policemen, government workers, newsmen and the ordinary man in the street know that in order for jueteng to thrive, there should be at least three major players.


But Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago looks at it differently. She says the formula only needs two elements. That is “DILG plus PNP equals jueteng.” This simply means that on the local level where jueteng money is amassed, the formula is “LGU representative plus police chief equals jueteng.”

The LGU rep is the provincial governor or vice governor, mayor or vice mayor, and barangay chairman while PNP is the police regional director, provincial director, city or municipal chief and the lower-ranked station commanders.

The financier and operator or both, rolled into one, is over and above the LGU rep and police rep. Of course, it is known in some areas that in special deals, the governor or the police regional director is the financier and operator at the same time.

If any of the two goes against the operations of jueteng, naturally it will not flourish. The same is true with the other forms of gambling – legal or illegal. And so the financier-operator has to see to it that the LGU head and the police chief are “friends.”

DILG Sec. Jesse Robredo, Senators Chiz Escudero, Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Teofisto Guingona III, whistleblower Bishop Oscar Cruz, and even jueteng suspects Pangasinan Gov. Amado Espino and Isabela congressman Napoleon Dy believe so.

In fact, Espino and Dy said there is no jueteng in their provinces as of the moment because they asked their police directors to stop it. See that! When the LGU head orders it to stop – it really stops.

Lawmakers believe that proper implementation of laws such as seriously running after operators, arresting kubradores and bettors and filing cases against LGU heads and police directors can stop jueteng.

But listening to how the honorable senators asked questions from the resource persons in the jueteng hearing, it appeared like they knew nothing about jueteng. Or were they only pretending to know nothing about jueteng so that it will not show that they knew too much of it – just like DILG Usec Rico Puno, the gun-buddy of P-Noy.

I really find it hard to believe that elected public officials who have all the means to get the best information would not know what Sen. Santiago knows. In needs a senate blue ribbon hearing to learn about things.

Santiago said money from jueteng bets reach about P30 billion annually. The average collection would be P66 million daily in only eight provinces, including Benguet (P1.2 million) and Baguio (P1.5 million).

Assuming Santiago’s jueteng money figures are true, would that not catch the attention of any senator who has the resources to gather all the jueteng information he wants? I just hope the joint senate hearing by the blue ribbon and local government committees did not take us for a ride.

Once more, jueteng comes to divide Filipinos. It was successfully manipulated to remove President Erap from office by those who took over. But those who came after him did not move to eradicate it. In fact, jueteng became more deeply rooted. Whatever it is, lawmakers believe that jueteng can be stopped if the President says so.

Thus, I ask myself if it is just as simple for P-Noy as Chief Executive to clench his fists and order, as a matter of policy, that all police regional directors, 79 provincial governors and 122 city mayors to “by all means stop jueteng” in their LGUs.

In this case, monitoring would be easy. Any LGU head or police chief who will not obey the Malacanang directive will of course be suspect and eventually sacked or sued administratively and criminally.

If President Noy can do that I think he would save our senators and congressmen a considerable amount of money, time and energy from holding divisive “in aid of legislation” hearings. It would put an end to LGU heads suspecting other LGU heads of allowing jueteng to operate, and police directors would no longer have operators to protect. But first things first – P-Noy should sack his shooting range buddy Rico Puno.

By the way in Pangasinan, provincial board members paid a full page ad in a national daily in support of Gov. Espino. The board members praised Espino for "a long record of accomplishments, an unquestionable political will, a deep sense of love for Pangasinan and a commitment to uplift the lives of Pangasinenses."

But, in the same ad, they threatened to declare Archbishop Oscar Cruz persona non grata. I believe that is a wrong move on the part of the board members. The jueteng issue has already divided Pangasinenses, considering that Bishop Cruz also has his supporters. There is no need to make that rift more serious.

Of course, any public official’s good performance should be praised but that is entirely different from the issue of whether or not he is a gambling lord or allows illegal gambling to flourish in his province.

Jueteng is indeed a headache for Malacanang. Sec. Robredo said they are thinking of offering a competitive alternative in STL to make it more attractive to jueteng workers. If the kubradores and other jueteng workers see that STL which is legal offers them more financial income than jueteng, then the revenues of STL will go up and bettors will patronize it.

Robredo admits the original design of STL was made to fail so that jueteng will flourish. A few years ago in Baguio, the entry of STL has divided the association of barangays when a member who was then linked to jueteng wanted to have STL in the city so that their jueteng operations would continue.

Robredo said, another strategy is to wean people away from gambling, but added, “this is no small feat.” I heard former PNP Chief Jesus Verzosa say the job is not theirs alone. He said people should also help by not placing their bets.

But shouldn’t it work the other way around? Law enforcement should instead get rid of the kubradores so that even if there are bettors there is no one to collect the bets. In all gambling forms, the game is first opened for bettors to come in.

Sen. Santiago warned that if jueteng continues, the President will someday be elected on the basis of “who gets the biggest jueteng contribution.” Sen. Guingona agrees. He said jueteng lords can dictate on who will sit in government.

And since ours is a country of jueteng bettors, then we will soon have a president in 2016 voted upon by people who survive on gambling. – marchfianza777@yahoo.com