Jueteng on despite PNP chief’s ‘one-strike’ rule

BAGUIO CITY -- Jueteng operations are still on in northern and Central Luzon even after Philippine National Police chief Director General NicanorBartolome ordered regional police directors to strictly implement the PNP’s “one-strike” and “no-take” policies on illegal gambling.

Bartolome was reaching to the apparent lackluster performance of some regional police offices in the drive against jueteng and other forms of illegal gambling.

           

Under the PNP’s twin policies, police officials found accepting money from known jueteng or gambling operators face dismissal from the service.

           

Police chiefs unable to stop illegal gambling in their respective jurisdictions will be relieved from their posts.

           

To date, jueteng is thriving in this resort city and Benguet towns La Trinidad, Mankayan, Buguias, Itogon, Tuba and Tublay, sources said.
           

Jueteng operations are still reportedly on in all Cordillera provinces.

           

But in Mountain Province, only the town of Bauko was reportedly affected with bet collectors coming from Mankayan and Buguias.

           

Sources also said jueteng was also flourishing in almost all towns in Regions 1 and 2.  

           

The PNP’s Oversight Committee on Illegal Gambling chaired by Deputy Director General Emelito Sarmiento earlier noted the “lackluster performance” by some regional police officers in carrying out the anti-illegal gambling drive.

           

Data from the PNP headquarters show that over the past five months, the success of the anti-illegal gambling drive nationwide had decreased by 25 percent, with the number of persons arrested for illegal gambling dropping by 28 percent compared to figures during the same period last year.

“The one-strike policy shall be vigorously observed with greater emphasis on command responsibility, while the no-take policy shall be the norm among all PNP personnel, consistent with prescribed ethical standards and anti-graft law,” Bartolome said in a memorandum circulated by the PNP Directorate for Operations.

           

A number of local police chiefs have reportedly been removed from their posts for failing to stop illegal gambling in their respective turfs.

This as Dangerous Drugs Board chairman Antonio Villar Jr. last week dared the PNP and the Department of the Interior and Local Governments to implement their anti-jueteng­ drive nationwide to show their sincerity in enforcing campaign.

           

Villar said the current anti-juetengefforts seems “only superficial with lowly police chiefs from small towns used as sacrificial lambs.”