Cops admit no big fish caught in Davao Sur ‘Last Two’ raids

DIGOS CITY—The big fish continues to elude a supposedly revitalized campaign against criminal gambling here, a police officer admitted on Wednesday.

Financiers of the numbers racket “Last Two,” so-called because it chooses its winners based on the last two digits of winning numbers in the government game Lotto, are out of reach of police despite an order by Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo to step up the campaign against the criminal syndicate behind the racket.

Supt. Cesario Dukiling, the operations officer of the Davao del Sur police, said police chiefs regularly report arrests or filing of charges against ushers or bet collectors but nothing pertains to financiers.

“The reports pertain to arrested and charged ushers or bet collectors only, but no big-time financiers have been charged in court,” he said.

Dukiling said from January until today, 17 bet collectors have been charged in court.

“The financiers could not be sued based on the reports of the police chiefs because the arrested ushers would not say who they are,” he said.

Dukiling said chiefs of police have to exert extra effort to hunt down the game’s financiers.

Financiers of illegal numbers games face prison terms of up to 20 years if convicted under the revised antigambling law.

Senior Insp. Francis Sonza, head of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Davao del Sur, said last year, police had identified a financier based in the city.

Sonza said Pedring Labajo, a resident of this city, had been charged in court but the case was dismissed for lack of evidence.

“Even if we manage to identify them, they could get out of jail soon after we arrest them because of lack of evidence,” he said.

In Sta. Cruz town, a police officer who requested anonymity said there is now a silent tiff between police and some local officials because of the intensified campaign against Last Two.

Another source said politicians, or people close to them, were identified as among the financiers of the illegal numbers game.

Sta. Cruz Mayor Joel Ray Lopez admitted that his wife, Marga, was among those rumored to be involved in the illegal numbers game because of her friendship with a suspected financier.

But Lopez said his wife is clean. He said he suspected that the rumors about his wife’s involvement in Last Two were politically motivated.

“I even berated the police for arresting only the small ones. I even suspect that their failure to arrest the financiers had something to do with SOP (bribe),” he said. Orlando Dinoy, Inquirer Mindanao