Jueteng: Where’s the will?

ON DISTANT SHORE
Val G. Abelgas

Juan comes home one Friday with the small earning he got driving a pedicab the whole day. There’s not even enough for tonight’s supper and tomorrow’s meals and “baon” for the four children, who are going to school with the same clothes they have been wearing for three days now. Not to mention the electric bill Juan has to pay by Monday.

And then comes Jose, the neighborhood jueteng collector. “Taya na!” prods Jose. “Kulang pa ngang pangkain ng mga anak ko itong kita ko,” Juan says as he scratches his head. “Malay mo manalo ka, di wala ka ng problema buong linggo. Kung siniswerte ka, baka makapag-down ka pa para sa sarili mong tricycle,” Jose eggs on. “Sige na nga. Magdilang anghel ka sana,” Juan says reluctantly, and places half of his meager earning on his favorite combinations.

With close to a million-to-1 chance of winning big in jueteng, needless to say, Juan lost half of his hard-earned money that day. His wife had to get sardines on credit again the next day for the four children to share when they come back from school without a single centavo for “baon.”

That is the tragedy of jueteng. That is also the reason jueteng should never be legalized, as is again being proposed by some lawmakers, following the disclosure by retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz, the biggest crusader against jueteng, that two of President Aquino’s close aides are receiving P2 million each month from jueteng operators.

While jueteng, or any form of gambling for that matter, offers a chance of solving one’s financial problems in an instant, it gives people false hopes and buries them deeper in a culture of dependency. Worse, jueteng virtually robs money from the bettors – who are almost certain to lose since only less than 10% of the total collection is earmarked for winnings.

The jueteng operator rakes in millions, the unscrupulous police and government officials make millions in exchange for turning a blind eye, the jueteng collectors make a little earning, and the poor bettors – millions of them – each lose thousands of pesos that should have gone to their family’s meals, to pay their bills, and to give their kids a decent education.

Proponents of the legalization of jueteng, like the top two Senate officials – Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Senate President Protempore Jinggoy Estrada –say that the vice has been there for generations, and that “buying dreams” for a few pesos wouldn’t hurt the bettors. So, instead of removing this “little joy” of poor Filipinos, why not just legalize it and make the government earn millions of pesos in taxes, instead of the money going to corrupt politicians? Besides, tens of thousands of bet collectors are earning income from jueteng, why deprive them of their livelihood?

If we are to follow this line of reasoning, the government might as well legalize the sale of shabu and other illegal drugs, too. And yes, prostitution, too. Thousands of shabu dealers and drug pushers earn a living peddling these illicit drugs. Why deprive them of their livelihood? Tens of thousands of pimps and prostitutes make bundles of money luring men for sex. Why deprive them of their livelihood? And why deprive the shabu users of their “little joy” and pastime?

Why deprive the men of their “little joy” in the company of the sex-for-money women?

Imagine the money that the government would earn if jueteng, shabu and drug dealing, and prostitution would be legalized? All the money that jueteng lords, drug dealers, pimps and prostitutes pay as bribes to police, military, local and national officials would go to the government coffers.

And presto, no more budget deficit and the gross national product (which would include monetary transactions from these three vices) would increase threefold.

It is the same mentality that jueteng and other forms of gambling have inculcated in the minds of Filipinos for generations – the chance to earn a quick buck.

Indeed, with a magic wand that would legalize jueteng, the government gets to earn easy money from the gambling operators. Jueteng victimizes the poor, indeed, the very poor. Jueteng deprives them of their hard-earned money. A jueteng bet gives them false hopes and false dreams. Every time the poor places his bet, he drowns deeper in the quicksand of hopelessness and despair, because the “little dream” turns to disappointment at the end of the day.

The country’s leaders must erase the mentality of “if you can’t lick ‘em, join ‘em.” The fact that it has not been able to stop the numbers game for generations does not give the government reason to legalize jueteng. It must muster the political will to crush this cancer that has gnawed upon the people’s moral fabric for years. It must put a stop to this biggest source of corruption in the country.

When asked how the jueteng can be solved years ago, Archbishop Cruz said bluntly: “President Arroyo only has to say the word, and jueteng operations will stop.” The militant archbishop made it look too simple, but, on the other hand, come to think of it, all the country’s problems could be solved or at least minimized if the national leadership would only be sincere and determined to wipe them out. It’s called political will.

To paraphrase Archbishop Cruz: “President Aquino only has to say the word, and jueteng operations stop.” But does he have the will? If he has, he hasn’t shown it.

When Aquino appointed highly respected former Mayor Jesse Robredo of Naga City to head the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Robredo said the President had “issued a very clear directive to stop jueteng.” But the following day, Robredo, who completely crushed jueteng in Naga City when he was mayor, clarified that his focus would be the empowerment of local governments. Aquino was later quoted as saying that eradicating jueteng was not a priority of his government.

When informed that Archbishop Cruz has tagged two of his closest aides as recipients of jueteng money, he went into the usual defensive mode: “Name names.” Aquino said his aides could have been the victims of name-dropping or a set-up. Worse, he said P2 million a month is “such a pitiful amount: compared to the P37 billion annually estimated to be the size of the jueteng industry. Parang napaka-cheap naman naming lahat dito,” he said. Maybe the two aides should have asked for P10 million a month?

Archbishop Cruz, in exasperation in the lack of resolve of the Aquino administration to stop jueteng, said: “The past administration was notorious for its patronage of jueteng. It is my hope that the present administration, which claims to be the opposite of the past administration, will be able to demonstrate its resolve and not just go ‘blah, blah, blah.’”
Again, I say amen. (valabelgas@aol.com)