PNP chief dared: Stop ‘jueteng’ in Pampanga

If the new leader of the Philippine National Police (PNP) is serious in stopping “jueteng,” an illegal numbers game, he should start the campaign in Pampanga, a movement for good governance and ethical leadership said on Monday.

In a statement welcoming and supporting the newly named PNP chief, Deputy Director General Nicanor Bartolome, Kaya Natin! urged him to “walk his talk by stopping jueteng operations in Pampanga, the so-called ’Vatican of jueteng’ within his first 60 days in office.”

Once that is done, the group said, “many jueteng lords, rogue police officers and corrupt local leaders will see that he means business.”

“This will hopefully send a clear sign to every Filipino that our PNP is indeed following [President Aquino’s] call for righteous governance,” it said.

Kaya Natin! was founded in June 2008 by now Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, former Isabela Governor Grace Padaca, former Pampanga Governor Eddie Panlilio and Harvey Keh, director for youth leadership at the Ateneo School of Government. About 50 incumbent and former elected officials have since joined Kaya Natin!.

Keh, the lead convenor, said Robredo, who supervises the PNP, did not sign the statement.

“Although [Robredo] fully supports our stand against jueteng, it would be a conflict of interest for him to sign [the statement] given that aside from being our co-founder, he also serves as [Department of the Interior and Local Government] secretary, [a position that] has a direct relationship with the PNP,” he said.

Kaya Natin! said efforts to stop the illegal numbers game should be done most especially in Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog and Bicol.

“Unless illegal gambling is totally stopped in our country, we cannot completely claim that we are already following our President’s call to follow ‘ang matuwid na daan (straight path),’” Kaya Natin! said.

It urged Bartolome to review the results of last year’s hearings of three Senate committees that investigated jueteng to “help him in identifying the people behind jueteng operations in our country, if he is still in the dark about this.”

Bartolome has never been assigned to Pampanga. His last assignment in Central Luzon was in Tarlac, which is known to be outside the territories of big jueteng financiers.

Kaya Natin! said stopping jueteng is a “very critical issue” in the run-up to the 2013 elections because funds from the illegal lottery would “again be used by corrupt local leaders to conduct vote-buying and electoral fraud which will marginalize many of our government leaders who are practicing good governance and leadership with integrity.”

Senior Superintendent Edgardo Tinio, Pampanga police director, said jueteng has been stopped in the province. “The game [being played here] is [Small Town Lottery],” he said.

The STL was introduced by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) during the term of the late President Corazon Aquino and was revived in 2004 during the Arroyo administration.

In Pampanga, however, Bishop Pablo Virgilio David said jueteng and the STL were “one and the same.”

The PNP confirmed the proliferation of jueteng through a report it submitted last year to three Senate committees investigating information that the STL was used as a cover for the illegal game. This happened as jueteng financiers got permits from the PCSO to act as agent-corporations for the STL.

Jueteng grossed an estimated P2.575 billion in bets monthly in seven regions, the highest being in Pampanga, Pangasinan and Quezon, a report by the police’s directorate for intelligence showed.

Governor Lilia Pineda said stopping jueteng was “not my job but the police’s.”