Ex-archbishop Cruz: Start ‘jueteng’ war in Tarlac

Dagupan City—Retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz said police should start their campaign to stop the illegal numbers game “jueteng” not in Pampanga, but in President Aquino’s home province of Tarlac.

From there, Cruz said the antigambling drive should proceed to Pampanga and Pangasinan, until it reaches Batangas and Laguna.

“They could do it one province at a time. They should start with Tarlac and you know why they should start there. It is because the President is from there,” he told Inquirer by telephone.

“Next, they should go to Pampanga and then to Pangasinan. ’Yang tatlong probinsiya ang tatlong bituing nagniningning sa langit (Those three provinces are the three brightest stars in the sky). Then they should clean all other provinces up to Batangas and Laguna,” said Cruz, the former head of the Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan in Pangasinan.

‘Walk the talk’

On Monday, the group Kaya Natin! asked newly installed Philippine National Police chief, Deputy Director General Nicanor Bartolome, to “walk his talk” by stopping jueteng, starting in Pampanga.

The Inquirer tried but failed to reach Bartolome to seek his views on the challenge posed by Kaya Natin!

Bartolome took one call from the Inquirer on Monday to reschedule an interview. He has not replied to any of the seven calls made and five text messages sent to his mobile phone on Tuesday.

Chief Supt. Agrimero Cruz, PNP spokesperson, said Bartolome was busy attending a hearing in the Senate to defend the police’s budget for 2012.

He said Bartolome has not instructed him to answer queries on the challenge posed by Kaya Natin!

Harvey Keh, lead convenor of Kaya Natin!, said he was confident that Bartolome would take up the challenge.

‘Old song’

Fr. Eddie Panlilio, former Pampanga governor and one of the founding members of Kaya Natin!, said the group would try to meet with Bartolome and discuss the issue.

Archbishop Cruz, chair of the Krusada ng Bayan Laban sa Sugal (People’s Crusade Against Gambling), called the PNP’s “one strike” policy against jueteng as an “old song” that was never successful. The policy calls for the relief of any police official if it is proven that there is jueteng in his town, city or province.

“That’s an old tune,” said Cruz.

Jueteng persists not only in the provinces but also in southern Metro Manila. In some areas, it has gone into a turf war with another form of gambling, jai alai.

Cruz said if the Aquino administration, with all its budget and with all agencies like the police, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the National Bureau of Investigation cannot stop jueteng, “then there is no evil that this [administration] can stop until it is out of office.”

Shortcomings

Cruz said he admired Kaya Natin! and is grateful that it joined the fight against jueteng. He hoped other progood governance organizations would join the drive against illegal gambling.

But Cruz assailed two founding members of Kaya Natin! for their actions on the campaign against illegal gambling.

He said Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, a convenor of Kaya Natin! was quiet about the illegal game. “It was disappointing that Robredo, who was [earlier] awarded by the Krusada for keeping Naga City jueteng-free when he was mayor, would suddenly waver in the fight against the illegal numbers game now,” he said.

Keh said Robredo supports the group’s position against jueteng but could not sign the group’s statement because of conflict of interest. The PNP is under the supervision of the DILG, but it was Undersecretary Rico A. Puno who was given police supervision by President Aquino.

Cruz has linked Puno to jueteng payoffs, which the undersecretary denied repeatedly.

Nonexistent

Cruz also assailed Panlilio for his failure to stop jueteng in Pampanga when he was governor.

“Kaya Natin! is for good governance so they came up with an antijueteng stand. But when he [Panlilio] was governor, he did not stop jueteng in Pampanga then,” Cruz said.

A quick look into the Pampanga police’s statistics on illegal gambling operations from January to August this year reflected the position of its director, Senior Supt. Edgardo Tinio, that jueteng is nonexistent in the province.

The word jueteng does not appear in illegal gambling reports.

Investigators used terms as “illegal bookies,” “STL (Small Town Lottery) bookies” and “illegal gambling” for which there were only 10 cases in Magalang, City of San Fernando and Arayat.

Tinio insisted that the game being played in Pampanga is actually STL but bettors themselves believed they are still betting on jueteng because the same paraphernalia, system and personnel are being used.

Cruz and Panlilio have branded STL and jueteng as one and the same. Yolanda Sotelo, Inquirer Northern Luzon, and Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon