Bad faith

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March Fianza

            In an informal dialogue with Dr. Manuel Jaramilla, PhD., the new regional director of the National Commission on Indigenous People in the Cordillera, he gave the first impression of a religious personality as he pressed each one of us to put God first in whatever undertaking we do.

            I saw in him a simple man as the way he dressed was not sophisticated. Compared to others with “PhD” qualifications, he walked about in his maong pants and rubber shoes. To me, that means a lot.  

The conversation centered on concerns of indigenous cultural communities (ICCs), particularly the IPs of Baguio or the Ibaloys to which he said there are always solutions to every problem.

Any which way one goes toward a goal or takes several detours, a destination can always be reached. Believe that solutions to a problem can always be reached even by taking detours, he said.

Included in the IP concerns that the group discussed with him were about the IPMRs, organizing IPOs and that there are personalities in the agency who are themselves contributory to the problems. If that is the case, he said there is bad faith in the way work or actions are dispensed with.

Dr. Jaramilla did not promise anything but he showed determination in helping to resolve IP issues. We left the conference room with renewed faith, and hopeful that this time we can work together. That was something the Ibaloys in Baguio wanted to do in the past, but somehow did not.  

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Everytime a new PNP chief is appointed, statements about closing illegal gambling operations are made. It is like a broken record that keeps playing back non-stop.

Days after assumption into office, PNP chief Police General Archie Francisco Gamboa ordered PNP heads to strictly obey a “no take” policy which all the more confuses the ordinary cop on the street.

The cop wonders why a “no take” policy and closing gambling operations is ordered at the same time. He knows that if gambling operations are closed, there is nothing to take.

Then there is the idea to meet officials from the PAGCOR and the Games and Amusement Boards to find out if the gambling operations at present are legal, as if they still do not know that.

Upon ordering an intensified operation against illegal gambling, his men immediately moved to destroy in front of cameras illegal video karera machines and fruit game machines in various spots of Manila.

 While the move that was shown live on news TV can convince the audience that the police are seriously obeying orders, that is nothing compared to the on-going operations of Jueteng, the biggest illegal gambling operations nationwide.

That is not being stopped and there is no mention about it from the PNP chief’s mouth. I am reminded that in 2017, Sen. Ping Lacson said, the PCSO is being cheated out of an estimated P50 billion a year in its Small Town Lottery (STL) operations.

Lacson who was then chair of the Senate Committee on Games and Amusement made the claim after PCSO officials reported that the PCSO generated only P6.4 billion from STL operations in 2016.

Sen. Lacson, a former chief of the PNP has been saying all the time that the uniform or vest and ID issued by PCSO to STL workers are used for guerrilla jueteng operations. In his words in 2017, Lacson said, “it’s happening on the ground and the police know that.”

I wonder if PNP chief Gamboa knows what his men on the ground know, as claimed by Sen. Lacson. If not, then that should be one of his agenda with the government offices in charge of gambling.

The jueteng collection of P50 billion a year or P50 million to P65 million daily according to the senator even appeared to be small based on the real situation on the ground.

With the recent raids against video karera operations that were shown on TV, people may have been convinced of Gamboa’s pronouncements to his men not to take bribes because there is nothing to take anyway since the gambling dens were closed.

 But what about reports of police officials receiving payola from jueteng operations that has not been stopped? Will there be a crackdown against jueteng hiding behind STL operations?

Under RA 9287, the PNP and other law enforcement agencies are duty-bound to enforce the law against jueteng and other forms of illegal gambling. Jueteng is not exempted from the anti-gambling operations of the PNP, even if that is “ordered” by President Duterte.

But if PNP chief Gamboa does not make any move, then there is bad faith in his previous pronouncements to fight against all forms of illegal gambling.