No ‘Loterya’ operators yet as ‘jueteng’ still breathes

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) has not yet selected the companies that would operate the Loterya ng Bayan, a replacement for Small Town Lottery (STL) which has become a cover for the illegal numbers racket jueteng.

STL was designed to eradicate jueteng and Loterya is supposedly an improvement of it.

Instead, STL has become a cover for jueteng, according to retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz, whose group is battling illegal numbers games.

Jueteng continues to thrive and an affidavit surfaced pointing to continued payoffs to top police officials to buy protection for the racket.

In an affidavit executed on June 9, a Leandro Bautista, claiming to be an employee of a certain Allan Manuela, said he was in charge of distributing payoffs to different units of the Philippine National Police from jueteng.

According to his affidavit, the payoffs given every 15 days range from P20,000 to P400,000 depending on the rank of the officer.

The Loterya, according to PCSO, was designed to put an end to jueteng and the list of operators would be out soon.

In Pampanga, people known to be jueteng collectors began wearing shirts and ID cards with STL marks only after the Senate wrapped up its investigation on jueteng in November 2010. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon