CANDON CITY?Deputy National Security Adviser Luis ?Chavit? Singson Tuesday said Sen. Panfilo Lacson?s statements implicating deposed President Joseph Estrada in the illegal numbers game ?jueteng? vindicated him.

Singson also supported Lacson in his contention that he?Lacson?had refused to accept a P5-million monthly payola offered him when he was Philippine National Police (PNP) chief under Estrada?s administration.

?What Senator Lacson said about jueteng was true. Erap (Estrada?s moniker) received jueteng payola,? Singson said in Filipino in a phone interview with the Inquirer.

Singson?s testimony that he acted as Estrada?s bagman in the jueteng racket led to the former President?s impeachment and subsequent ouster in a people power revolt in 2001.

The former Ilocos Sur governor is himself currently embroiled in a public scandal stemming from allegations by his common-law wife, Rachel Tiongson, that he had beaten her when he caught her in the company of her boyfriend.

?I am vindicated?

Singson said Lacson?s Senate speech the other day meant so much to him because this proved that what he said in 2000 and 2001 about Estrada?s supposed role in protecting illegal gambling operators was true.

?I am vindicated in my exposé before regarding jueteng during Erap?s presidency,? he said.

Singson gave Lacson credit for not accepting the payola supposedly intended for the then PNP chief.

?In fairness to Senator Lacson, he refused the P5-million payola and this went to Erap,? he said.

Campaign against gambling

In Manila, PNP spokesperson Senior Supt. Leonardo Espina Tuesday said the PNP was pursuing its operations to eradicate jueteng.

?The PNP is doing all its best efforts in eradicating jueteng in all parts of the country. We are also analyzing and evaluating if this illegal numbers game is penetrating the ranks of the STL (small-town lottery),? Espina said.

STL is a type of legal gambling introduced by the government to stamp out jueteng.

Religious leaders in Baguio City, who are involved in a campaign against the ?culture of gambling,? said they were not surprised by Lacson?s exposé.

They also said candidates running in the May 2010 elections should publicly declare where they stand on the issue of gambling.

?It is high time for the electorate to demand from all presidential and other national and local candidates to state their positions on how to eradicate this gambling menace,? Baguio Bishop Carlito Cenzon told Baguio reporters.

Crackdown on lotto

Cenzon was among religious and civic leaders supporting an antigambling rally of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines-Baguio, which is demanding the closure of a lotto outlet just 60 meters from the church and its school.

?It?s ironic that Baguio has been promoting itself as a ?Character City? and an educational center but the various lotto outlets now proliferating only help promote a culture of gambling,? said Rev. Simplicio Dang-awan Jr., UCCP-Baguio senior pastor.

Mayor Reinaldo Bautista Jr. ordered the closure of the lotto outlet on Monday ahead of Tuesday?s planned rally.

Josefina Sarsonas, manager for Northern and Central Luzon of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), has asked the lotto outlet owner, Evangeline Dorao, to move her business away from churches, schools and hospitals.

Dang-awan claimed Dorao had defied Sarsonas? advice and Bautista?s closure order.

US study

According to Dang-awan, Dorao claimed her outlet had been endorsed by former President Fidel Ramos, a Pangasinan townmate of Dorao.

Dang-awan said he wrote Ramos, who also belongs to the UCCP, and the former President clarified his endorsement of Dorao?s operation was subject to what the law allowed.

Dang-awan urged antigambling supporters to pursue their campaign against 24 other lotto outlets in the city.

Both Dang-awan and Cenzon said gambling discouraged people from working hard as they?d rather leave their fate to chance.

Dang-awan debunked claims that lotteries help government earn revenues.

He cited a US study, which he said revealed that for every dollar earned from gaming operators, $4 was spent to correct the ?evils of gambling,? such as the cost of prosecuting gambling-related crimes, treatment of gambling addicts, loss of man-hours as gamblers skip work, and training doctors and psychiatrists. With a report from Tarra Quismundo