“Erap lawyer wants to legalize ‘jueteng’ in Manila.” An emailed statement to the Inquirer bearing this title, one with a potential to kick up a storm against former president and now Manila mayor-elect Joseph Estrada, came from the address erap.mediia@gmail.com on Thursday. It even gave the supposed contact number of his spokesperson.
Police are linking the attack on a businessman here to the operations of illegal numbers game syndicates. The attack on businessman Edgar Lim, 49, resident of Barangay Day-As here, is being linked to rivalry between operators of “masiao” and “swertres,” two illegal numbers games popular in the province of Cebu and other parts of the Visayas.
The police operation plan carried out by Supt. Hansel Marantan purportedly to neutralize a crime ring was a “mere subterfuge” to kill a competitor in “jueteng” that has continued to flourish despite well-publicized government pledges to eliminate the illegal numbers racket, investigators said.
Most politicians are “betting on jueteng” to help finance their election campaign. Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Alan Purisima told Inquirer editors and reporters over dinner on Wednesday that the illegal numbers game has become a fund-raising activity of sorts for politicians running for government posts.
The National Bureau of Investigation should focus on the motive for the alleged one-way shootout in Atimonan, Quezon, that killed 13 persons, including two cops and two soldiers.
The shootout in Atimonan, Quezon, that left 13 persons dead showed that suppressing the illegal numbers game jueteng has not been a priority of the Aquino administration, retired Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz said Tuesday.
A party mate of President Benigno Aquino in the House of Representative has filed a resolution seeking an investigation into jueteng after the illegal numbers game took the national spotlight once again.
The Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) issued a statement on Wednesday, defending Pangasinan Gov. Amado Espino from allegations that he had collected some P900 million in bribes from illegal gambling operators in his province.
A team of investigators from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has started looking into the bank accounts and assets of Pangasinan Gov. Amado Espino Jr., who has been accused of coddling operators of the illegal numbers game, or “jueteng,” in his province.
Pangasinan Gov. Amado Espino on Monday denied living on money from the illegal numbers racket “jueteng.”
With less than two months before the campaign for the 2013 midterm elections starts, cracks are already showing on the alliance between the Liberal Party (LP) and the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), and the shaker is the revival of an investigation into the illegal numbers racket “jueteng.”
Bugallon Mayor Rodrigo Orduña, the man who blew the whistle on the alleged involvement of Pangasinan Gov. Amado Espino Jr. in jueteng operations in the province, reported for work in his town on Monday, this time with security aides monitoring his movements following his exposé last week.
Malacañang on Monday pressed a whistleblower to back up his charges that former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, former Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno and Philippine National Police chiefs took jueteng payoffs with hard evidence.
