CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—A Catholic bishop in Pampanga has challenged President Benigno Aquino to stop the illegal numbers racket jueteng in the province.
Auxiliary Bishop Pablo Virgilio David took Mr. Aquino to task after the police arrested 33 suspected jueteng bet collectors in Quezon City on Monday. The police called the raid the biggest so far in Quezon City.
“I wonder how far up they got in the jueteng hierarchy. Is a raid like this possible at all in Pampanga? [I’m] just wondering. Maybe the law is optional in Pampanga?” David said in a statement sent to the Inquirer on Tuesday.
“Will the Pampanga [police], even under [the Aquino] administration, tell us, ‘Prove that there is jueteng in Pampanga,’” he said, referring to the oft-repeated line of police officials who passed the burden of proof to citizens.
Cover for ‘jueteng’
The Philippine National Police confirmed the proliferation of jueteng through a report it submitted last year to three Senate committees investigating information that the government’s Small Town Lottery (STL), which is run by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), is used as a cover for the illegal game.
This happened as known jueteng financiers got permits from PCSO to act as agent-corporations for STL.
Jueteng grossed an estimated P2.575 billion in bets monthly in seven regions, the highest being in Pampanga, Pangasinan and Quezon provinces, according to a report marked “confidential” by the PNP’s directorate for intelligence.
PNP responsibility
Pampanga Gov. Lilia Pineda said the issue of jueteng operations and other illegal forms of gambling is the responsibility of the police.
The governor is the wife of Rodolfo “Bong” Pineda, who had been investigated by the Senate in connection with jueteng operations in the country. Bong Pineda, who is based in Pampanga, had repeatedly denied that he was financing jueteng operations.
Senior Supt. Edgardo Tinio, Pampanga police director, said there is no jueteng operation in the province.
“Jueteng wala. STL ang laro dito (There’s no jueteng. STL is the game being played here),” Tinio told the Inquirer by telephone.
The provincial police reported conducting 22 anti-illegal gambling operations, mostly on STL bookies from January to June. From those raids, the police arrested 57 people, seized P14,231 in bets and filed 21 cases.
Payoffs
Inquirer sources said the collection of protection money for jueteng is not centralized up to President Aquino, unlike during the time of former President Joseph Estrada, as attested to by Ilocos Sur Gov. Chavit Singson in congressional hearings and the impeachment trial of Estrada in 2000.
But retired Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz, in a Senate testimony, said one of Mr. Aquino’s closest friends, Interior Undersecretary Rico Puno, is on the take from jueteng. Puno repeatedly denied the allegation.
The PCSO is delayed by four months now in introducing the Loterya ng Bayan (PLB) as a substitute for STL.
Local governments and the police stand to get 12.5 percent from the 30 percent charity funds of PLB. They used to get a total of 22.5 percent under STL.
Pampanga received STL shares of P14.2 million in 2009 and P16.8 million in 2010, a copy of a certified statement of receipts showed.
Former Gov. Eddie Panlilio said the province did not use STL shares in 2009 and 2010 because “STL and jueteng were one and the same in Pampanga.” Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon