BULL’S HIT

Illegal bingo/Sakal boys
RUDY GARCIA

The closure order for a bingo fund raising activity at Otek St. near the Rizal monument in Baguio shows Mayor Reynaldo Bautista Jr. means to stand pat on his declaration that he would not allow any form of illegal gambling in the city. He meant business when he ordered public order and safety division under Greg Delejero to implement the closure order.

While the operators of this bingo joint with the support of the barangay claimed that this fund raising activity was allowed by the law it being covered by Republic Act 7160 of the Local Government Code in its provision “Empowering Barangays to hold Fund Raising Activities,” they fell short in explaining why gambling should be allowed in raising revenue.

In mathematics, if you compute the earnings derived from this bingo joint and say, other games, it is not even enough to pay the rent of the lot they occupy, so how much more to the other costs they have to shoulder?

Unless they have extra activities that could make them and the other lucky guys richer by hundreds of thousands in just few days, it seems they flopped when they failed to secure necessary permits and went into believing that they will not incur problems when they gave this city hall official the nod to fix all his colleagues and help them with the necessary papers.

And if the report is true that some local officials, police and the media were given some advance payments as their partake of the pile, and aside from paying advance rentals, then the operators could now be thinking how they will recover their giveaways unless they are willing to shell another big amount of money to these corrupt people who could pull the strings for the re opening of their bingo joint.

Anyway it is running in our system and if the said bingo joint at Otek St. re opens again, surely then it is pera-pera na naman ang usapan di ba? Place your bet!
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How true is it that the “Sakal Boys” in this summer capital are changing their style of operation, from the usual robbing of their victims at public roads and parks, they now concentrate their illegal activities inside bars and billiard joints.

Their new modus operandi: they enter into a bar or billiards joint and pretend to be costumers and after some rounds of drinks they stand up and start their acting good by announcing that one of them was a victim of a pickpocket and that he lost a cell phone or a wallet.

At this point they will challenge some costumers to a fight claiming they were the suspects. If a commotion erupts among the customers and the “Sakal boys”, some of their members come in and pretend to pacify but are in fact robbing unsuspecting victims of their valuables.

And after one of the “Sakal boys“ gives a signal, they will casually walk out one by one with their loot hidden inside their bags or pockets, with the victims knowing later on that their valuables were gone.

So, who is saying now that these criminals are not using their coconuts? Who knows they could have also attended a rigid acting workshop and made use of it for their advantage. So, beware owners of bars and billiards establishments. Your place might be the next target of these “Sakal boys.”
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Calling the attention of the Cordillera regional Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and intelligence department of the Baguio City police office. I guess this is a good challenge for them to prove their “ intelligence” are working better than the “ intelligence” of these “Sakal boys.”Right BCPO Chief Supt. Moises Guevarra and Coronel Train of CIDG? Come on, move on sirs!
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I wonder if this bingo joint or “bingalan” (binguhan at sugalan) at km. 5 la Trinidad, Benguet has the “blessings” of barangay and municipal officials the reason why its operator, a certain Aling Linda, is not worried about the authorities who might be conducting raids in her place? I also wonder if the police, the non-government organizations and the media already got their advance share of the pie, reason why they are mum and silent about this bingalan of Linda at Km. 5.

I am not saying that there is already a cashunduan between the operator and the authorities. But our authorities have the chance now to prove there is no cashunduan by initiating closure of this bingo joint “cum” bingalan the soonest. Right la Trinidad Mayor Galwan and Gov. Fongwan? Ipasara na!