Group offers to help Roxas stop ‘jueteng’

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—Where the police apparently fear to tread, a nongovernmental group is stepping in to disprove the claim of lawmen that “jueteng” no longer exists in Pampanga—and stamp out the illegal numbers racket.

The provincial chapter of the  People Power Volunteers for Reforms (PPVR) has offered to help the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) arrest jueteng collectors in the province more than a week after Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas asked the police to stop the numbers racket.

“We want [Roxas] to deputize us to help the [DILG’s special project group] to make arrests and prove there is jueteng. It should be stopped because it is not just a game or form of entertainment,” said Eduardo Manugue, PPVR chapter chairman.

Manugue said “those who control jueteng have controlled politics in our province.”

The PPVR was founded on Aug. 20, 2010, with former Civil Service Commission head Karina David as national chair and some 300 civil society groups as members.

Roxas mission order

On Oct. 24, Roxas gave the police a month to stop jueteng in Pampanga.

He issued the order during a  Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC) meeting attended by local officials, including Pampanga Gov. Lilia Pineda, wife of suspected jueteng lord Rodolfo “Bong” Pineda.

Called to Senate investigations in 1995, 2000 and 2005, Bong Pineda denied financing the game and, in one case, was cleared of charges that he was giving payola to police and local officials.

During the RPOC meeting at Clark Freeport, top police officials told Roxas that jueteng had been stopped in Pampanga and elsewhere in Central Luzon.

Roxas, however, told police officials that jueteng was being played in Pampanga, saying his informants were able to place bets and obtain jueteng bet sheets.

Senior Supt. R’Win Pagkalinawan, Pampanga police director, nonetheless welcomed the proposal of the PPVR. “It should be an all-out community action against jueteng. It’s not only a police job,” he said on Saturday.

Manugue said jueteng operators were using the government-backed Small Town Lottery (STL) as a front.

Police denials notwithstanding, it is common knowledge in Central Luzon that where there is STL, there is jueteng.

The illegal operation is revealed when cabos (area managers) accept tumbok—a bet on the reverse order of a pair of winning numbers for STL—which also gets a corresponding prize money.

Manugue said his group had information that some cobradores (bet collectors), in collusion with cabos, were not remitting STL collections and instead pocket the money.

“But when a pair of numbers wagered in STL wins, these cobradores give the prize money to winners. In this scheme, the illegal operation is from within the STL system,” he said.

“This government can stop STL but it cannot stop jueteng until the financiers and operators hear President Aquino order the police to stop jueteng,” he said.

Chief Supt. Edgardo Ladao, Central Luzon police director, said the police would host a conference between the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) and its STL agents in Central Luzon on Nov. 7.

Ladao said police officials would attend the meeting to review the implementing rules and regulations of STL so they could help the PCSO enforce these and identify violations.

He declined to give more details of the meeting to be held at the regional police headquarters in Camp Olivas here, saying it was primarily between the PCSO and STL agents.

The sweepstakes agency reintroduced STL in 2006  to stop jueteng, giving private corporations permits to run the game. The STL mechanics are similar to jueteng’s.

The private corporations given permits were Lake Tahoe, which was authorized to run STL in Angeles City, Sunset Bay in Bataan, Diamond Gaming in Bulacan, Green 2 Corp. and CTG Prime Ventures in Nueva Ecija, Northtrails Corp. in Tarlac, Golden Matrix in Olongapo City and Global International Philippines in Zambales.

But Manugue said the conference “seemed very late because STL contracts are due to end in June [2013].”

“But if the [STL agents] are really serious in making STL work, they should really stop jueteng,” he said.

Jueteng in seven regions grossed P2.575 billion monthly, according to a report the police submitted to the Senate in November 2010.

The STL made only P9.5 billion in gross receipts from February 2006 to August 2010, PCSO officials told the Senate.